August hottest month ever recorded, says EU monitor

Data from the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service released Thursday showed the average global air temperature last month measured 16.96° Celsius (62.53° F), the highest monthly global average ever recorded. 

"Humans haven't seen temperatures as hot as today for, arguably, at least the last 100,000 years," Samantha Burgess from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which oversees Copernicus, told AFP.

Copernicus data, which goes back to 1940, recorded the previous all-time monthly high only three years ago in July 2023.

Western Europe recorded its hottest summer on record this year after successive heatwaves, droughts and wildfires.

Between mid-July and mid-August, Europe saw more than 32,000 excess deaths related to heat, DW reported, citing the EuroMomo monitoring platform.