The three-month span between June 1 and Aug. 31 was officially the world’s warmest on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
NOAA’s monthly climate update, released on Sept. 19, showed the average global land and ocean temperatures for that period—which marks the meteorological summer in the Northern Hemisphere and the meteorological winter in the Southern Hemisphere—were 2.23 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average.