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Earth smashes yet another heat record; 16th month in a row

FILE - In this Dec. 16, 2015 file photo, professor Stephen Hawking listens to a news conference in London. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016, said that August’s temperature of 61.74 degrees (16.52 Celsius) was the 16th month in a row that Earth set a record for the hottest month. NOAA monitoring chief Deke Arndt said it was also the hottest summer, with 2016 on pace to smash last year’s record for the hottest year. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)
FILE - In this Dec. 16, 2015 file photo, professor Stephen Hawking listens to a news conference in London. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016, said that August’s temperature of 61.74 degrees (16.52 Celsius) was the 16th month in a row that Earth set a record for the hottest month. NOAA monitoring chief Deke Arndt said it was also the hottest summer, with 2016 on pace to smash last year’s record for the hottest year. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File) FILE - In this Dec. 16, 2015 file photo, professor Stephen Hawking listens to a news conference in London. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016, said that August’s temperature of 61.74 degrees (16.52 Celsius) was the 16th month in a row that Earth set a record for the hottest month. NOAA monitoring chief Deke Arndt said it was also the hottest summer, with 2016 on pace to smash last year’s record for the hottest year. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)

By Associated Press 2 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) – Another month, another global heat record smashed.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Tuesday said August’s temperature of 61.74 degrees (16.52 Celsius) was .09 degrees (.05 Celsius) warmer than the old August record set last year, and was the 16th consecutive month of record-breaking heat. NOAA monitoring chief Deke Arndt said it was also the hottest summer, with 2016 on pace to smash last year’s record for the hottest year.

August 2016 was also 1.66 degrees (0.92 Celsius) warmer than the 20th-century average. It was the fifth hottest month of any kind recorded, going back to 1880. Six of the 17 hottest months on record have been the summer months of 2015 and 2016.

The June-through-August summer was 2.18 degrees (1.21 Celsius) warmer than the 20th-century average and beat the old summer heat record, set last year, by one-fifth of a degree (0.11 Celsius), NOAA said.

“The needle has been shoved all the way over into the red by greenhouse gases,” Arndt said.