2023 summer, ever recorded the hottest in the world

The year 2023 is on track to go down in history as the hottest ever after data released on Wednesday showed that the planet sweltered under its hottest summer, as the climate crisis and an emerging El Nino pushed up temperatures, triggering extreme weather across regions.

- Tannu Jain

The June-July-August season - summer in the Northern Hemisphere-was the warmest ever recorded, with an average temperature of 16.77°C, which was 0.66°C above the 1990-2020 average, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Data for August 2023 shows that the month set a new all-time heat record with an average temperature of 16.82°C -0.71°C warmer than the 1991-2020 average, and more alarmingly, 1.5°C above the pre-industrial average of 1850-1900, a key threshold beyond which experts say the planet will be pushed into irrevocable climate changes.

The hottest August came right on the heels of the hottest July-about 0.33 warmer than the previous warmest month, July 2019 and the hottest June, which was 0.13°C warmer than the previous record set by June 2020.

Seen together, the three months made the 2023 summer surpass the 2019 record of 16.48°C by a wide margin, C3S said in a statement.

The new data prompted yet another stark warning from the UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres, who said that "climate breakdown has begun".