August this year has won some undesirable awards – joint hottest month ever recorded globally, the hottest August ever recorded, hottest summer on record in the UK and record high sea temperatures.
The UK’s Met office said that this summer is the hottest on record, with average temperature 0.4C higher than the previous record (set last summer).
Prof Friederike Otto, professor of climate science at Imperial College London, said: “I run the risk of sounding like a broken record but these numbers should surprise no one. You don’t need to be a climate scientist to see the evidence of climate change, you just need to look out of your window.”
Sea surface temperatures also hit record highs in August due to fossil fuel burning and warming seas associated with the El Nino weather phenomenon – the North Sea and the Baltic Sea were once again significantly warmer than the long-term average.
These records have been set just before the next global climate change conference – COP31 in Turkey, in a months’ time.
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