August was Earth’s warmest month on record, researchers say

The combined global average land and ocean surface temperature for January through August also reached a record high, NOAA climatologists reported.

When sea temperatures were compared to months of August over the past 136 years, “this was the highest for August in the 1880-2015 record, besting the previous record set in 1998 by 0.23 Fahrenheit (0.13C)”, said the report.

Earth’s record-breaking heat is sounding an awful lot like a broken record. It’s been 368 months in a row of above normal heat and it’s been more than 100 years since the planet had a record cold year. Five of those months also happen to be among the 10 most freakishly warm months that NCEI has ever recorded.

Last month, climate scientist Jessica Blunden, who works with NOAA, said it’s “99 percent certain that it’s going to be the warmest year on record”. But Arndt says that was before August’s temperature average was factored in. Scientists blame a combination of human-caused climate change and natural El Nino. Data and information from NOAA, NASA and the Japan Meteorological Agency, show that South America and parts of North America, Africa, Europe and Asia all experienced record heat during the first eight months of 2015.

“This continues a trend we’ve seen since the latter part of 2014 for a very warm temperature trend relative to history”, Deke Arndt, the head of NCEI’s climate monitoring division, said.

The planet is on track to experience its warmest year on record, according to the report. The year-to-date global average surface temperature on both land and the oceans was 1.51 degrees Fahrenheit (0.84 degrees Celsius) above the 20th century average, says NOAA.