75-year-old Palestinian Mustafa Abdo repairs a fan in his shop amid a heat wave in Shati refugee camp. Abdo has been servicing electrical appliances for more than 30 years.
Sopa pictures | Light rocket | Getty Images
Several heat records were broken this summer.
Last month was the hottest August on record, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration records going back 174 years. The three-month period from June to August was also the hottest on record, according to NOAA on Thursday, and included the hottest meteorological winter on record in the Southern Hemisphere.
Global sea surface temperatures were the highest on record in August, marking the fifth consecutive month in which global sea surface temperatures reached new highs for each month.
The sea surface temperature anomaly, measuring the deviation from a long-term average, for August 2023 was also the largest anomaly ever recorded.
Islamorada, Florida, July 24, 2023: Elkhorn corals transplanted to the reef on Alligator Reeds in the Florida Keys now appear to be bleached after days of high water temperatures. The corals at Alligator Reef showed signs of bleaching that were not present a week earlier.
Carolyn Cole | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
Finally, sea ice extent in August reached a record low of all Augusts on record, falling 550,000 square miles below the previous record set in August 2019. Sea ice area is the entire region covered by ice, while “extent” refers to the entire region covered by ice At least 15 percent sea ice cover is covered.
Global marine heat waves and the El Niño weather pattern contributed to all extreme temperature records in 2023, NOAA chief scientist Sarah Kapnick said in a statement released Thursday.
“But as long as emissions continue to cause steady background warming, we expect more records to be broken in the coming years,” Kapnick said.
Record air and water temperatures contributed to extreme weather around the globe in August, including monsoon rains in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. NOAA summarized these events in the graphic embedded below.
Enlarge symbolArrows point outwards
NOAA and the National Centers for Environmental Information have recorded some of the climate anomalies starting in August 2023.
Diagram courtesy of NOAA and the National Centers for Environmental Information.
Source : www.cnbc.com