It just keeps getting hotter.
August has tied July for the distinction of being the hottest month since record-keeping began in 1880, NASA said in a release Monday.
And there’s a good chance 2016 will become the third year in a row of record heat.
An increase in greenhouse-gas emissions and El Niño, a weather pattern that warms parts of the Pacific Ocean, has contributed to temperature increases in 2016, scientists said earlier this year.
The records being set continue to stack up.
• August and July are now the hottest months on record.
• Every month since October 2015 has set a monthly high-temperature record.
• The first six months of this year beat 2015 for the hottest half-year ever recorded.
• Both 2014 and 2015 set heat records, and 2016 is on pace to continue the trend.
Schmidt cautioned against putting too much significance on monthly rankings and emphasized that the long-term warming trend is more significant.
“This year really does stand out in comparison with all the other years,” Schmidt said.
The streak of record highs could end — for a while at least — if a weather pattern known as La Niña, in which sea surface temperatures fall below normal, takes hold soon, but Schmidt said it’s not clear that will materialize.
And even if it does, it is not likely to prevent 2016 from becoming the hottest year on record.
For Seattle, National Weather Service meteorologist Chris Burke said August was “warmer than normal but not outlandish.” Both August in 2015 and 2016 tied as the eighth-warmest month on record with an average of 68.7 degrees, he said. Last July was the warmest with an average of 71.2 degrees, according to Burke.
August has tied July for the distinction of being the hottest month since record-keeping began in 1880, NASA said in a release Monday.
And there’s a good chance 2016 will become the third year in a row of record heat.
An increase in greenhouse-gas emissions and El Niño, a weather pattern that warms parts of the Pacific Ocean, has contributed to temperature increases in 2016, scientists said earlier this year.
• August and July are now the hottest months on record.
• Every month since October 2015 has set a monthly high-temperature record.
• The first six months of this year beat 2015 for the hottest half-year ever recorded.
• Both 2014 and 2015 set heat records, and 2016 is on pace to continue the trend.
Schmidt cautioned against putting too much significance on monthly rankings and emphasized that the long-term warming trend is more significant.
“This year really does stand out in comparison with all the other years,” Schmidt said.
The streak of record highs could end — for a while at least — if a weather pattern known as La Niña, in which sea surface temperatures fall below normal, takes hold soon, but Schmidt said it’s not clear that will materialize.
And even if it does, it is not likely to prevent 2016 from becoming the hottest year on record.
For Seattle, National Weather Service meteorologist Chris Burke said August was “warmer than normal but not outlandish.” Both August in 2015 and 2016 tied as the eighth-warmest month on record with an average of 68.7 degrees, he said. Last July was the warmest with an average of 71.2 degrees, according to Burke.
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