Lazy-warm late-afternoon Wednesday here in California’s Central Valley — despite boiling-like scorching temperatures just about worldwide (especially tight now in the Eastern US), we’re experiencing a cooler-than-normal summer-into-fall transition, and it’s nice.

Although our situation right now doesn’t necessarily mimic the reality of Earth — climate change is no-shit a full-bore danger upon us — because the planet has just undergone the hottest three months on record as announced today by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres noted the occasion: ‘“Our planet has just endured a season of simmering — the hottest summer on record. Climate breakdown has begun. Scientists have long warned what our fossil fuel addiction will unleash. Surging temperatures demand a surge in action. Leaders must turn up the heat now for climate solutions. We can still avoid the worst of climate chaos – and we don’t have a moment to lose.“‘

António with another understatement:

Earth just had its hottest three months on record – @WMO & @CopernicusECMWF

Limiting human-caused #GlobalWarming requires #NetZero CO2 emissions.

Limiting warming to 1.5°C & 2°C involves rapid, deep & in most cases immediate #GHG emission reductions.

??https://t.co/mmmFRBPsAZ pic.twitter.com/QM3RaDHOj5

— IPCC (@IPCC_CH) September 6, 2023

Details via The Washington Post late this afternoon:

August capped this summer’s extreme heat with a monthly average temperature of 62.3 degrees Fahrenheit (16.82 Celsius), which was 0.71 C warmer than the long-term average and 0.31 C warmer than the previous warmest August in 2016. It was the planet’s second-hottest month ever observed, closely following July, which was the hottest.

The average surface air temperature for June, July and August — which scientists consider “meteorological summer” — was 62.2 degrees F (16.77 degrees C), based on analysis of billions of weather instrument measurements. That was 0.66 C above the long-term average, which is considered a large margin when comparing seasonal averages in temperature. Every summer since 2009 has been warmer than average.

[…]

August was also the world’s 534th consecutive warmer-than-average month, spanning a stretch of more than 44 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The record-breaking news comes after climate agencies confirmed that July was the planet’s hottest month in 174 years of record-keeping, which followed the warmest June on record. Eight months in, 2023 ranks as the second-warmest year on record, just 0.01 C below 2016.

The extreme heat has continued into September, this week spreading across the Eastern United States and Western Europe.

Record-setting heat waves spawned by intense high-pressure heat domes affected regions across the globe throughout the summer. Heat records were shattered in the United States, parts of Europe, Asia and South America, with numerous monthly and all-time temperature records set, both for daytime highs and warm nighttime lows.

The heat has been relentless across the southern tier of the United States, where a heat dome has been parked from Texas to Florida since June. Southern Europe, especially from Portugal to Italy, and Japan were also among the regions that have suffered particularly extreme heat. Many locations have measured their hottest Augusts or summers on record.

NOAA said in August that “it is virtually certain” that 2023 will rank among the five warmest years on record, while Berkeley Earth said it’s “virtually certain” 2023 will be the planet’s warmest year on record.

The warmth is being driven in part by the El Niño climate pattern, which NOAA gave a 95 percent chance of continuing through winter.

[…]

The average global sea surface temperature was warmer on every day in August than the previous warmest temperature ever recorded, in March 2016, according to Copernicus. August had the highest average sea surface temperature of any month on record at 69.7 F (20.98 C). The North Atlantic was especially warm, surpassing its previous warmest temperature of 76.7 F (24.81 C) on Aug. 5 and staying above that mark almost every day since.

Maybe a video clip to reinstate the horrible obvious:

As António beseeches, Pinball sorrowfully just might have the last word:

Hot-to-a-boil, or not, yet once again here we are…

(Illustration out front found here.)