June through August of this year was the hottest summer in recorded weather history, federal scientists said Thursday.
Surface temperatures around the globe were 1.53 degrees Fahrenheit above their average for those months throughout the 20th century, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said.
{mosads}Last summer held the previous record, and 2015 beat it by 0.2 degrees, NOAA reported. The records go back to 1880.
August also set a temperature record, as did the period from January from August.
This year alone has seen month after month of NOAA records, which scientists are attributing to climate change.
It’s making it more and more likely that 2015 will set a new record as the hottest year on record, NOAA said.
“The historical data suggest it would take a remarkable and abrupt reversal in the NOAAGlobalTemp time series over the remainder of the year to upend 2015’s drive toward record-breaking status,” scientists wrote in a Thursday blog post accompanying the latest data.
“In other words, it appears extremely unlikely that 2015 will lose its commanding lead.”
NASA and the Japan Meteorological Agency have recently come to the same conclusions about the summer record.