The last 5 Augusts have been the hottest in recorded history
Earth's accelerated warming trend continued this August, as the sweltering month proved to be one of the hottest Augusts in recorded history.
In fact, each of the last five Augusts are now the warmest since reliable record-keeping began nearly 140 years ago, in the early 1880s. August 2018 is officially the fifth-warmest, but nearly indistinguishable from 2014, 2015, and 2017.
Both data from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and that of other experts confirmed the warm, well above-average temperatures.
"The data show that global warming continues relentlessly, as predicted already in the 1970s," climate scientist Stefan Rahmstorf, head of Earth System Analysis at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said over email. Read more...
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