Once again, the global record for hottest month was broken this summer. August was the hottest month globally on record, and this past summer was the hottest on record for the lower 48 states (United States). .
What we are seeing is that month after month new heat records are being set, with the baseline being set higher and higher. And yet these are soon broken. Scientists agree that a big contributing factor is human caused climate change (due to burning of fossil fuels - gas, oil, coal). Are governments taking note and doing something? Hmmm...
Excerpts from NPR: This summer was hot. August shattered global heat records
If you thought this summer felt hotter than normal, you were right. Temperatures around the world were unusually warm, surpassing several heat records, including in the U.S.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration this week announced that for the Lower 48 states, this summer– from June to August– was the warmest in 132 years of record-keeping.
Globally, August ties with July 2023 as the hottest month on record, according to the European climate service, Copernicus Climate Change Service.
In August, global temperatures exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, according to Copernicus. That's a key climate threshold agreed to by countries in 2015. Record high sea surface temperatures were also seen across the Pacific Ocean as the climate pattern El Niño began to develop.
Francesca Guglielmo, a senior scientist at the Copernicus Climate Change Service, said while "every record is always shocking in a way," the numbers are not a surprise. It's a trend scientists have been observing for years.
"What we're feeling is not some regional heat anomaly, but a hotter climate all over the globe," said Alexander Gershunov, a research meteorologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. "We're not the only ones who are feeling it: ask the Europeans, the Japanese, everybody is feeling the heat this summer."
August averaged 75.6 degrees Fahrenheit in the Lower 48 states, making it the warmest August on record. Daytime maximum temperatures also reached 88.6 degrees Fahrenheit on average, another record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Drought also covered almost 60% of the U.S. this summer.
The main driver behind record-breaking heat is human-caused climate change.
"The number one reason is climate change. Full stop," said Swain. "The earth is warming. It's been warming. It continues to warm."... "Whenever there is an extreme or record breaking heat wave, there is a human-caused climate change contribution to that heat wave," Swain said.
"[El Niño] is a natural pattern that's occurring in an unnaturally warming world," said Gershunov, the UC San Diego researcher.
This summer's heat brought devastating consequences to Europe, where French officials recorded thousands of deaths. Western Europe marked its hottest summer on record, according to Copernicus data.