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August breaks global heat records for 16th consecutive month: NOAA

Xinhua, September 21, 2016 Adjust font size:

Last month was the hottest August on record, continuing a trend of breaking global heat records for the 16th consecutive month, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Tuesday.

"Put away your party hats: August marks a not-so-sweet 16 months of record warmth for the globe, the longest such streak in 137 years," the NOAA said in a statement.

The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for August was 0.92 degrees Celsius above the 20th century average of 15.6 degrees Celsius, surpassing the previous record set in 2015 by 0.05 degrees Celsius, according to the NOAA's monthly report.

Record warmth were observed across the northeastern U.S., northern South America, central and southern Africa, and across parts of western Russia, southern India, China, Southeastern Asia and Indonesia.

Overall, five of the six continents had at least a top 10 warm August, with Africa and Asia observing a record high average temperature for August since continental records began in 1910.

Record warmth was also present across the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, the central southern Atlantic Ocean, and across parts of western Indian Ocean and the western and southeastern Pacific Ocean.

On the whole, the August globally-averaged sea surface temperature was the second highest on record, just behind 2015 by 0.02 degrees Celsius.

For the year to date, the average global temperature was 1.01 degrees Celsius above average, also breaking the heat record set in 2015 by 0.16 degrees Celsius. Endit