NASA GISS: 4th-warmest August

NASA GISS says August was the fourth-warmest August since the data begins in 1880, +0.85 C relative to 1951-1980.

Maybe I'll do the calculations to compare that to NOAA. Maybe I won't. 

Warmer Augusts were, in order, 2016, 2019 and 2017.

In his Monthly Temperature Update (sent by email; subscribe here), James Hansen says

2020 thus stumbled in its horserace with 2016 for record warm year (upper right figure), perhaps dragged down by the developing La Nina (upper left), as we cautioned in our April Temperature Update.  It’s still possible for 2020 to catch 2016, though, as the late months in 2016 were also cooled by a La Nina.

The important question concerns the acceleration in global warming in recent years, as global temperature in the past five years has been well above the nearly linear trend of warming in the past 50 years.  We will discuss the relation between the accelerated warming and climate forcings in a future communication.

It was extremely hot in the large portion of Central Europe and the Southwest United States in August.  Death Valley, California reached a record high 130⁰F (54.4⁰C).  This heat wave continued into September and is contributing to the severity and spread of wildfires in the western states.

and gives these graph:

2016's La Nina was mild, and this year's year-to-date temperature is already below 2016's, with a deeper La Nina forecast for the rest of the year, so if I had to guess I'd say a record high temperature 2020 looks unlikely. We'll see.