August Was World's Third Hottest, In Line With Most Months This Year

As it has for several years now, the August world
map of whether temperatures were above or below
the 20th century average shows almost
 exclusively on the warm side. 

The latest monthly report on the state of the global climate tells us August was the world's third hottest on record. 

That's the same as most recent months, as this year continues to trend just a tad cooler than the record global heat of 2023 and 2024. But other than those two years, August was easily warmer than any other in at least the past 150 years. 

The top ten warmest global Augusts have all occurred since 2015. 

El Nino, which tends to heat the world even above those caused by climate change, boosted temperatures in 2023 and 2024. 

 El Nino is not active, so it's mostly just climate change keeping temperatures above previous years.

Land areas had their fourth warmest August, and oceans had their third warmest August. Warmest areas included the Arctic, which had its second warmest August on record after 2023. Other particularly hot areas were most of the northern Pacific Ocean, far eastern Asia, western and northern Europe, northern Siberia, the Caribbean, eastern and northern South America, and adjacent South Atlantic Ocean waters. 

Unprecedented heat waves hit Spain, France, Japan, and sections of the Middle East. 

 Cooler than average temperatures, as usual, were hard to find in August. The only places that were a wee bit on the chilly side were parts of the southeast United States, eastern Europe, Far East Russia, a couple little sections of Africa, a perennial little cold spot in the North Atlantic south of Greenland and parts of Antarctica.

There was actually a small dot in the southern Pacific Ocean that had a record cold August, which is relative rarity in this age of climate change. 

The bottom line is that 2025 will offer a break of sorts from two consecutive record hot years the world had in 2023 and 2024.  The bad news is 2025 will certainly be in the top five list of warmest years. 

Meteorological summer, running from June 1 through August 31 was also the third warmest on record. 

The streak of warmest ever global temperatures from 2023 and 2024 extended into January, which was the hottest on record. Since then, each month this year was third hottest after the previous two years. Except for April and May, which were the second hottest on record for the world. 

I'm already guessing that 2026 also might not break the 2024 record for global heat. La Nina, the opposite weather pattern of the heat-adding El Nino is beginning to take over, according to latest NOAA forecasts.

At the moment, it doesn't look like it will be a particularly strong one, and it might not last very far into 2026.  But that could keep next year comparatively "cool."  Meaning there's a decent chance the world won't get as hot as 2024. 

However, there is no sign that climate change will ever go away. The world will keep getting hotter, and we will have another year - probably soon rather than later - that we'll have yet another record hot year.