Indian men and boys swim in a river on the outskirts of Amritsar earlier this summer.

(NARINDER NANU/AFP/Getty Images)

Data released by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies on Monday shows that August 2014 was the warmest August worldwide since the instrument record began more than 130 years ago.

The latest data from NASA's Global Land-Ocean Temperature index -- you can see the full record here -- showed that last month was the top-ranked August, with an anomaly of 0.70ºC above the 1951-1990 baseline temperature average.

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The difference however is very small compared with previous Augusts, said NASA-GISS Director Dr. Gavin Schmidt in an email interview with weather.com, adding that August 2014 "is basically in a statistical tie" with 2011, 2008, 2006 and 2003.

"Different analyses will likely give a different ranking among these," he added. "The key issue for climate are the long-term trends, not individual months."

See the complete GISTEMP temperature report here.

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An emaciated polar bear is seen on a small sheet of ice in this image taken in August in Svalbard, north of mainland Norway. (Kerstin Langenberger)