2023 summer was hottest ever on record: UN weather agency

Summer of 2023 was the hottest ever recorded, the UN's weather agency said on Wednesday.

"It was the hottest August on record – by a large margin – and the second hottest ever month after July 2023," according to the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service.

"The northern hemisphere just had a summer of extremes," WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a statement, recalling the wildfires and the heat waves.

"In the southern hemisphere Antarctic sea ice extent was literally off the charts, and the global sea surface temperature was once again at a new record," he added.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, for his part, said: "Our planet has just endured a season of simmering – the hottest summer on record," and warned against the "climate breakdown."

"Scientists have long warned what our fossil fuel addiction will unleash," he added and urged leaders to take action and find solutions.

Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, said that 2023 was the second warmest year on record, according to eight-month data already.

The record-breaking levels and their impacts on both the people and the planet are clearly indicating "the warming of the climate system," he said.