NASA: This August was hottest on record

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last updated 8 January 2015

Newly released temperature data from NASA shows that this August was the hottest on record globally. This summer overall was also tied as the fourth warmest summer on record by NASA's rankings.

August's record temperature was 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the 1951-1980 average August temperature, according to the NASA data. In addition, the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) ranked this July as the fourth-warmest on record.

April Blunden, a climate scientist at the NCDC, told Climate Central that the higher summer temperatures were due in large part to "impressive warmth" in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. August also saw much higher temperatures than normal in central Europe, northern Africa, South America, and the western parts of North America. The NCDC says that this is the 38th consecutive August and 354th consecutive month that the global average temperature was above the 20th century average, thanks to rising greenhouse gas levels.