Our warming planet: August was the 16th consecutive month the world's average temperature set a monthly record

We're now up to 16 consecutive months of record heat.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced this morning the globally averaged temperature over land and ocean surfaces for August 2016 was the highest for that month in the agency's database for global records, which goes back to 1880.

August 2016 also was the 16th consecutive month a monthly global temperature record was broken.

That 16-month streak is the longest on record, NOAA said.

The June-through-August and January-through-August global temperatures also are the highest on record.

Go here for NOAA's August summary and here for its full August report.

Go here for a summary NOAA.gov article on the August climate highlights, and here for the U.S. climate summary for August.