Summer 2023 Was the Hottest Summer on Record

August 2023 was the hottest August, rounding out the hottest summer on NASA’s global temperature record. The global mean temperature anomaly for August 2023 was 1.24°C above the 1951-1980 July average.

Last month – July 2023 – was the hottest month ever on record. August was the hottest August on record, and June was the hottest June. The last three months comprised the hottest summer since modern recordkeeping began. NASA's record is maintained by the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.

Read more: https://go.nasa.gov/3sTTuC2

Compiling shorter, monthly observations into a longer data record allows us to see long-term changes like human-caused warming, while also monitoring how other factors, like the developing El Niño, also impact the climate system in the short term. El Niño is one part of a pattern of trade winds and ocean temperatures in the Eastern Tropical Pacific that impacts global climate, with changes to global temperatures and precipitation patterns.

Our temperature record starts in 1880 and uses millions of measurements of surface temperature from weather stations, ships and ocean buoys, and Antarctic research stations. Other agencies and organizations who keep similar global temperature records find the same pattern of long-term warming.

Video description: A climate spiral animation inspired by Dr. Ed Hawkins. The chart is circular with the year in the center and months of the year around the outside. There are three concentric circles labeled with measures from negative 1 degree Celsius to 1 degree Celsius, with the outer ring being the largest value. As the years count up, a line spirals through the months of the year and around the circle. The line starts with blue hues when temperatures are below average and changes to red and orange hues when temperatures are above average. As the spiral progresses, the lines form a deformed circle that becomes larger and more red, indicating Earth’s warming up to just above 1 degree Celsius above average. The animation rotates to show the spiral from the side, with the spirals growing taller as temperatures get higher over the years. White text below the visualization says “This summer was the hottest in NASA’s 144-year record. June, July, and August 2023 all set records for their respective months. July was the hottest month ever on record.”

Music: "Being Followed" by David Ashok Ramani [ASCAP] and Jonathan Elias [ASCAP] from Universal Production Music

Video credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Producer: Katy Mersmann (NASA/GSFC)
Public Affairs Officer: Peter Jacobs (NASA/GSFC)
Visualizer: Mark SubbaRao (NASA/GSFC)

This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14407

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