August was the second hottest month on record

Earth just experienced its second hottest month. The European Union-funded Copernicus Climate Change Service confirmed that the average global temperature in August was 1.5°C warmer than the pre-industrial average. Last month was surpassed only by that recorded in July, which is currently the hottest month on record.

The last three months as a whole have significantly surpassed previous records, the observatory emphasizes. Temperatures reported from June to August 16.8°C above average. In other words, it was the hottest summer in the northern hemisphere.

Another key figure: 2023 (January to August) is currently the second warmest year on record. The first place is taken by 2016, when there was a powerful warming caused by El Niño.

“Our planet has just gone through a boiling season,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said of the release of the report. “The climate crisis has begun,” he added in a statement.

The balance of the hottest months

The observatory offered various comparative interpretations of its data. This is all bad news. For example, on the sea surface during August, the average monthly temperature was 20.98 °C. “The temperature breaks the previous record – March 2016 – every day of August”stressed the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

Sea ice extent in Antarctica also remained at record levels for this time of year. His level was 12% below average. This is definitely the largest negative anomaly recorded in August since the start of satellite observations in the late 1970s.

Antarctica does not have as much ice as Argentina. Things are slightly better in the Arctic, with sea ice levels 10% below average but well above the August 2012 low.

“What we are seeing is not just new extreme events, but the persistence of these record conditions,” commented Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service. “The impact they have on both people and the planet is a clear consequence of global warming.”

what will happen next

Everything is happening before the biggest impact of the warming caused by the El Niño phenomenon, which is just beginning, is recorded. This usually happens in the second year after its development, explained World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Secretary-General Petteri Taalas, also regarding new information.

A May analysis conducted by WMO in conjunction with the UK Met Office predicts in May that there is a 98% chance that at least one of the next five years will be the warmest on record. And there is a 66% chance of temporarily exceeding the annual average of 1.5°C for at least one of the next five years.

This does not mean that the 1.5°C level specified in the Paris Agreement, which refers to long-term warming over many years, will be exceeded forever. But this is a clear sign that we are on the right track. A recent study published Washington Postguarantees that more than half of the world’s population will experience extreme heat that is unhealthy in 2050.