World records record heat in August for the second year running September 4, 2024

Desertification threatens different areas of the planet, from the Aral Sea to the Amazon, on all five continents.

By AFP - Agence France Presse

World records record heat in August for the second year running

The world recorded record average temperatures in August for the second year running, according to preliminary data from the European Union's Copernicus climate monitor, seen by AFP on Tuesday.

Although the exact official average temperature for last month is not yet known, Copernicus' Climate Pulse data tool has so far indicated that August 2024 should be at the same level as last year's record, 16.82 degrees Celsius (62.28 Fahrenheit).

Scientists warn that these unprecedented temperatures are largely caused by man-made climate change, which is causing more frequent and intense extreme weather events.

Australia, Japan, several Chinese provinces, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard in Norway had the hottest August on record, according to various weather agencies.

This continues an almost unbroken sequence of 15 months in which each month eclipsed its temperature record for the time of year, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).

Only July 2024 was measured by C3S as being slightly cooler than July 2023, although the US weather agency NOAA believes July 2024 to be the hottest month ever recorded.

In any case, 2023 was the hottest year ever recorded since weather data began to be kept in the 19th century, according to the various climate monitors.

And at the beginning of August, C3S had already warned that it was “increasingly likely” that 2024 would surpass it.

The C3S said that July 2024 would be 1.48°C hotter than the estimated average temperatures for the month during the period from 1850 to 1900 before the world began rapidly burning fossil fuels - the biggest contributor to climate change.

Climate researchers dedicated to studying the climate in the period before the advent of meteorological instruments believe that today's high temperatures are unprecedented in at least 120,000 years.

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