Record Global Trend Continues: August Was World's Hottest On Record

The world had its hottest August on record this year.
The only place that was cooler than the 20th century
average was in and near Antarctica for some reason.

 The numbers are in for August and to almost nobody's surprise once again, it was the hottest on record for Earth as a whole. 

Here's Yale Climate Connections with the update: 

"Berkeley Earth, the Japan Meteorological Agency, and the European Copernicus Climate Change Service also rated August 2023 as the warmest August on record, crushing the previous August record by a huge margin. Global temperature amalyses extend back to 1850 in the NOAA database."

As I do every month, I'll note how long it's been since the world had even so much as a marginally cool August. If you're under the age of 45, you've never seen a global cool August. 

August was the 534th consecutive month with temperatures at least nominally above the 20th century average. So yeah, this global warm trend has been going on for a little while, huh?

Before El Nino took hold earlier this year, most months were running in the top five warmest category, but not hottest ever.   Now, with El Nino, which usually gives global temperatures a boost, July and August have come in at record warmest.   

With El Nino expected to go full steam for the rest of the year, and climate change showing absolutely zero signs of letting up, all of 2023 looks like it will establish a new global record. NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information says there's a 93 percent chance that this year will be the warmest on record

Reliable records go back two about 1850.

A whopping 228 major reporting stations across the world reported their hottest on record August temperatures. A grand total of zero reporting stations reported all-time coldest readings. 

Most of the cities that had record high August temperatures were in Japan, Turkey, Spain, France, and the southern United States. 

Through the end of August, fourteen nations or territories reported their hottest ever temperatures, Yale Climate Connections reports. 

 Reports from polar regions were mixed, but generally pretty damn bad. Antarctic sea ice extent for August was the lowest on record. On the sort of bright side, ice growth around Antartica was a little better than average. Even better, the Antarctic region had its 16th coolest August on record, seriously bucking the trend seen in the rest of the world during the month. 

Arctic sea ice extent was the eighth lowest on record. So not the worst, but definitely far from the best. 

Greenland is also closely watched, because unlike frozen oceans, any ice that melts off of the Greenland ice sheet will raise global sea levels

This summer in Greenland got less attention than it deserved. The amount of melting off of Greenland was the second worst this year since they starting keep track of this in 1978 via satellite. Only the epic melt year of 2012 was worse.

Greenland's melt rate was far above average from late June through July, when you'd expect the most melting in Greenland. However, by late August, it normally has started to get cooler up there, so ice melt doesn't usually amount to much.  

Not this year.  A mid-month melting spike astounded scientists, as the thawing approached record melt paces from June and July. 

With El Nino expected to last into the winter, and climate change roaring along, it looks like we'll see a few more record global hot months heading through the fall and winter.