Not only was August the second warmest ever recorded, but the northern hemisphere experienced its hottest summer on record. Since 2015, temperatures have been breaking record after record.
It is not yet over and already it is setting a new record. Summer 2020 is in fact the hottest ever recorded in the northern hemisphere. This is according to Noaa (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), which in a bulletin published on 14 September explained that the August just ended is among the 10 warmest ever recorded since 1998 and among the five warmest from 2015 to the present day.
It is not only the health crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic that is demanding attention, but the climate crisis too, which is making itself felt in its full force: the wildfires in California, the cyclone in the Mediterranean and the unusual melting of polar ice are nothing other than effects linked (in part) to rising temperatures.
"We have now reached 428 consecutive months that have recorded temperatures above the 20th-century climate average. This and the other data published by Noaa should be alarming, but being alarmed is no longer enough," Serena Giacomin, president of the Italian Climate Network, told LifeGate. "We need to immediately achieve full awareness of the problems linked to global warming and go further: these data are not published with the aim of causing alarm, they are published so that they can become a strategic tool for deciding our future in a way that is sustainable and safe. We must find a way to turn these data into positive, constructive responses. We must give value to these data through actions of adaptation and mitigation."
According to scientists at Noaa's National Centers for Environmental Information, the northern hemisphere recorded its warmest June-to-August period, with an increase of 1.17°C above the average, surpassing the previous warmest period set in 2016 and again in 2019. The five hottest summers (June–August) for the northern hemisphere have all occurred from 2015 to the present day. This season, which also marks winter in the southern hemisphere, was the third warmest on Earth in 141 years — that is, since instrumental measurements began.
The areas with the highest readings were northern Russia, the south-western and north-eastern United States, eastern Canada and the northern Pacific Ocean, with average temperature anomalies of more than 2.0°C.
Not only was the summer now drawing to a close among the hottest on record, but August followed the same trend: again according to the Noaa bulletin, the average global land and ocean surface temperature was 0.94°C above the 20th-century average, making this the second warmest August in the 141-year record, behind August 2016. The trend was confirmed also by the monthly bulletin produced by the Copernicus programme, which, also for August, noted that the month was the warmest ever recorded after those of 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2020. By just 0.1°C.
Temperatures across Europe were predominantly above the 1981–2010 averages last August. In particular, the highest above-average values were recorded in a belt stretching from France through Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany. So much so that France itself recorded its third warmest August, after those of 2003 and 1997.
