Democracy Dies in Darkness

This was the world’s hottest summer on record ‘by a large margin’

The news comes after climate agencies confirmed that July was the planet’s warmest month in 174 years of record-keeping

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Updated September 6, 2023 at 4:55 p.m. EDT|Published September 6, 2023 at 1:16 p.m. EDT
Henry Gomez uses a blower to clear debris and dry his clothes after working to remove a tree during a heat wave in Houston last month. (Adrees Latif/Reuters)
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Fueled by unprecedented heat on much of Earth’s land and ocean surface, this summer was the planet’s hottest on record “by a large margin,” the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service announced Wednesday.

August capped this summer’s extreme heat with a monthly average temperature of 62.3 degrees Fahrenheit (16.82 Celsius), which was 0.71 C warmer than the long-term average and 0.31 C warmer than the previous warmest August in 2016. It was the planet’s second-hottest month ever observed, closely following July, which was the hottest.