Earth's warmest August saw 65 countries set record high temperatures: Report
Berkeley Earth, which focuses on environmental data science and analysis, said last month was the warmest August since records began to be kept in 1850, with «particularly warm conditions» prevailing in parts of India, Japan, North Atlantic, Eastern Equatorial Pacific, Northern South America, Central America, parts of Africa and the Middle East.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a US government agency, said on Thursday that 2023 witnessed Earth's hottest August in its 174-year climate record.
The sizzling month also marked the northern hemisphere's warmest meteorological summer and the southern hemisphere's warmest meteorological winter on record, the NOAA's National Centres for Environmental Information said.
Berkeley Earth said August 2023 exceeded the previous record set in August 2016 by 0.31 degrees Celsius, «a surprisingly large margin, well outside the margin of uncertainty».
Its researchers said: «We estimate that 13 per cent of the Earth's surface experienced its locally warmest August average, and 87 per cent of the Earth's surface was significantly warmer when compared to its local average during the period from 1951 to 1980.»
In total, they estimated that 65 countries (mostly in the tropics) witnessed their warmest August on record.
These countries include Bahrain, Barbados, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chad, China, Colombia, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Niger, Panama, Peru, the Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Turkiye, Venezuela and Yemen.
Some of these countries broke their August records by extraordinary margins.
In Ecuador, close to the strengthening El Nino, the August average temperature record was broken by more
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