Earth has simply skilled its hottest three-month interval on document by a big margin. The worldwide common temperature for June, July and August was 16.77°C (62.19°F), a whopping 0.66°C above common, in keeping with the European Union’s Copernicus Local weather Change Service. That temperature beat the earlier document set in 2019 by virtually three-tenths of a level.

“Local weather breakdown has begun,” mentioned António Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, in a assertion. “Our local weather is imploding quicker than we will deal with excessive climate occasions hitting each nook of the planet. Surging temperatures demand a surge in motion.”

Final month was the most well liked August in information going again to 1940 and the second hottest month ever after this July, when the common international temperature was 16.95°C (62.51°F). Ocean temperatures have been even hotter, averaging 20.98°C (69.76°F) in August – the brand new hottest month on document.

Each July and August have been estimated to be 1.5°C above the pre-industrial common, briefly reaching the restrict on yearly common warming established by the Paris Settlement.

The common for the yr up to now is just 0.01°C behind 2016, which holds the document for the most well liked yr, with El Niño, a periodic buildup of heat water within the jap Pacific, anticipated to maintain boosting international temperatures.

This summer time within the northern hemisphere has seen heatwaves gasoline the EU’s largest ever wildfire in Greece and temperatures of as much as 47°C (117°F), leading to hundreds of estimated deaths. Warmth information have additionally been set within the US, the place greater than 60 million individuals are presently below warmth alerts. It has been even hotter in Asia, the place China noticed its highest temperature ever recorded at 52.2°C (126°F).

Within the southern hemisphere, the place winter is simply ending, Antarctic sea ice is 12 per cent beneath its common extent, a document low for this time of yr.

“2023 is more likely to be the warmest yr individuals have ever skilled,” says Samantha Burgess on the Copernicus Local weather Change Service. “A hotter world means extra impacts from extra intense and frequent excessive occasions such because the heatwaves, wildfires and flooding seen this summer time. The UK is uncovered to the elevated local weather threat from a hotter world, and the summer time we’ve simply skilled is more likely to be one of many coolest summers over the following decade.”