The records for hottest months on Earth seem to be broken and set so frequently that every new record comes across as a prelude to another record in waiting. On September 12, it was found that August 2024 was the hottest August in 175 years.

As is the case with the 14 months prior to August 2024, the eighth month also registered itself as the hottest month ever recorded on Earth, according to the database maintained by United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

“The average global land and ocean surface temperature in August was 2.29 degrees F (1.27 degrees C) above the 20th-century average of 60.1 degrees F (15.6 degrees C), ranking as the warmest August in the global climate record,” a report published by NOAA mentioned.

The NOAA report also mentioned that Europe and Oceania had their warmest August on record, Asia saw its second-warmest while Africa and North America each had their third-warmest August.

It added that the summer season in 2024 was the northern hemisphere’s warmest on record.

Meanwhile, the southern hemisphere, which was witnessing its winter, was its warmest winter on record at 0.96 degree centigrade above average.

Sea ice extent on decline

Another notable observation by NOAA included the receding sea ice coverage around the globe. It is found that at present, global sea ice extent is the second-smallest in the 46-year record, at 8.32 million square miles, which was 1.05 million square miles below the 1991-2020 average.

Arctic sea ice extent was below average, ranking fourth-lowest on record while Antarctic extent was also reported to be below average, ranking second-lowest on record.

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