The Harrowing Heat Hump

If you took a walk in Phoenix, Arizona, in late July 2023 and tripped—perhaps over a buckling concrete sidewalk—the tumble could have landed you in the hospital at the local burn unit. Pavement temperatures sizzled over 80 °C , [ed. 170 F] and local news outlets reported hospitals full of burn patients who had fallen on the skillet-hot streets.

According to a new report from Berkeley Earth, August 2023 was the planet’s hottest August since written records began in 1850, with temperatures hovering 1.7 °C above the historical baseline.

Image: Berkeley Earth

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