EARTH HAD ITS HOTTEST AUGUST ON RECORD
Temperature records continue to topple. Last month was the planet’s warmest August in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 174year record, agency officials said Thursday. The global surface temperature for the month was 2.25 degrees Fahrenheit, or 1.25 degrees Celsius, above the 20th-century average.
“We certainly are setting records that are significantly larger,” said Karin Gleason, a climatologist at NOAA.
June and July were also the warmest on record globally, meaning the Northern Hemisphere saw its warmest summer on record and the Southern Hemisphere its warmest winter.
Global surface sea temperatures hit a record high for the fifth month in a row.
August saw the formation of 19 named storms across the globe, with eight reaching tropical cyclone strength. Six of these storms, including two hurricanes, happened in the Atlantic Ocean — more than usual for the region.
The effect of climate change on hurricanes is not straightforward. As wind patterns change, there may be slightly fewer tropical storms. But when storms do form, they will gather more energy from the hotter ocean and become stronger, sometimes over a single day or just a few hours. More hurricanes are likely to reach Category 3 or higher, as Idalia did.
This year will almost certainly be either the warmest or second-warmest year on human record after 2016, NOAA scientists said. El Niño conditions, which release additional heat into the atmosphere and are associated with warmer years on average, are expected to last at least through the northern hemisphere winter.
“We expect the heat to continue for the rest of 2023,” Gleason said.
Depending on how long El Niño persists, on top of the steady global warming from climate change, “It’s possible that 2024 could be even warmer than 2023,” she said.