From NOAA today:

Global highlights: August 2016

• The August temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.66°F above the 20th century average of 60.1°F. This was the highest for August in the 1880–2016 record, surpassing the previous record set in 2015 by 0.09°F. August 2016 was the highest monthly temperature departure since April 2016 and tied with September 2015 as the eighth highest monthly temperature departure among all months (1,640) on record. Overall, 14 of the 15 highest monthly temperature departures in the record have occurred since February 2015, with January 2007 also among the 15 highest monthly temperature departures.
• The August globally averaged land surface temperature was 2.32°F above the 20th century average of 56.9°F. This value was the highest August land global temperature in the 1880–2016 record, exceeding the previous record set in 2015 by 0.34°F. This was also the highest monthly global land temperature departure from average since April 2016.
• The August globally averaged sea surface temperature was 1.39°F above the 20th century monthly average of 61.4°F—the second highest global ocean temperature for August in the 1880–2016 record, behind 2015 by 0.04°F. August 2016 tied with June 2016 as the 11th highest departure from average among all 1,640 months in the record.
• The August temperature for the lower troposphere (roughly the lowest 5 miles of the atmosphere) was the highest in the 1979–2016 record, at 0.85°F above the 1981–2010 average, as analyzed by the University of Alabama in Huntsville* (UAH) using UAH version 5.6. It was the third highest on record, at 0.65°F above the 1981–2010 average, as analyzed by Remote Sensing Systems* (RSS).
• The August temperature for the mid-troposphere (roughly 2 miles to 6 miles above the surface) was the highest for August in the 1979–2016 record, at 0.79°F above the 1981–2010 average, as analyzed by UAH. It tied with 2010 as the second highest on record, at 0.72°F above the 1981-2010 average, behind 1998, as analyzed by RSS. After removing the influence of temperatures above 6 miles in altitude, the University of Washington, using data analyzed by the UAH and RSS, calculated temperature departures from the 1981-2010 average to be 1.03°F (highest) and 0.92°F (second highest), respectively.

Another way of looking at how hot it was in August compared to the past instrument record back to 1880.

The Earth was about two degrees (F) above the 20th century average in August, so if you want to know what a two degree warming looks like, you just need look around you. We had multiple extreme rainfall events, while many states recorded their hottest or nearly their hottest August on record. Here in Maryland, we had over 5 inches of rain in 24 hours yesterday and on the Eastern Shore of Va. they had 6 inches in 24 hours. Imagine 4 or 6 degrees warmer…

If you have not seen the XKCD graph of the Earth’s temps. for the past 4,000 years, you really should- HERE.