month

October was another hot month

December 3, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

In a year filled with unusually warm months, October 2024 ranked as the second-warmest October in the 175 years of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s records. It was just 0.09 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than the previous global record set just last year.

In our part of the world, North America had its warmest October on record.

Year-to-date, the global surface temperature has been 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average, which is the warmest such period on record. This record warmth was observed in Africa, Europe, North America, Oceania, and South America. With only a little of the year to go, predictions are that there is a greater than 99% chance that 2024 will rank as the world’s warmest year on record.

Other aspects of the warming climate were also in full evidence in October. Global sea ice coverage was the smallest in the 46 years that it has been tracked, about 1.25 million square miles below the 1991-2020 average. Ice extent in the Arctic was the fourth lowest on record and ice extent in the Antarctic was the second lowest on record.

Global ocean surface temperature was the second warmest for October and is the warmest ever for the period January to October.

The Atlantic basin saw five tropical cyclones during October, including the deadly and destructive Hurricane Milton that made landfall just south of Tampa Bay.

The monthly climate postings by NOAA continue to report record-breaking temperatures and significant climate anomalies and events. This pattern is not likely to do anything but continue in the future.

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Planet saw its 2nd-warmest October in 175-year record

Photo, posted August 21, 2018, courtesy of Fabio Achilli via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

And the heat goes on

October 16, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

August 2024 was the hottest August in the 175-years for which there are global records. The last full month of summer also wrapped up the Northern Hemisphere‘s warmest summer on record.

The average global surface temperature in August was 62.39 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 2.29 degrees above the 20th century August average. Furthermore, August was the 15th consecutive month of record-high global temperatures, which is a record in and of itself.

Regionally, Europe and Oceana had their warmest August on record. Asia had its second-warmest August, and Africa and North America had their third-warmest August.

The summer in the Northern Hemisphere was a record-breaker with a temperature 2.74 degrees Fahrenheit above average. Thinking about climate goals, this is 1.52 degrees Celsius above average, which is a troubling amount. Meanwhile, in the Southern Hemisphere, where it was winter in the June-to-August period, it was also the warmest ever with a temperature 1.73 degrees Fahrenheit above average.

Globally, this year to date ranks as the warmest ever recorded with a temperature 2.3 degrees above the 20th-century average. With a few months to go, the prediction is that there is a 97% chance that 2024 will rank as the world’s warmest year on record.

Other aspects of the global climate system were consistent with these record-breaking temperatures. The global ocean surface temperature for June through August was the warmest on record.

These monthly climate reports have an unfortunate similarity: the heat goes on.

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Earth had its hottest August in 175-year record

Photo, posted June 22, 2021, courtesy of Vicky Brock via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A month of extra-hot days

June 19, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The past 12 months have been the hottest ever measured across the globe. This may not be everyone’s experience in every location, but the average person on Earth experienced 26 more days of abnormally high temperatures than they would have in the absence of climate change.

Researchers considered a given day’s temperature to be abnormally high in a particular location if it exceeded 90% of the daily temperatures recorded there between 1991 and 2020. Nearly 80% of the world’s population experienced at least 31 days of abnormal warmth since May of 2023. Theoretically, the number of unusually warm days would have been far fewer in the absence of global warming.

In some countries, the extra-warm days added up to two or three weeks. In others, such as Colombia, Indonesia, and Rwanda, there were up to 4 months of them. The average American experienced 39 days of extra-warm temperatures since last May.

Scientists also added up how many extreme heat waves the planet experienced since last May. These are defined as episodes of unseasonable warmth across a large area, lasting three or more days, and causing significant loss of life or disruption to infrastructure or industry. In total, the researchers identified 76 such episodes, affecting 90 countries, on every continent except Antarctica.

The world’s climate is now shifting toward the La Niña phase of the cyclical pattern called the El Niño-Southern Oscillation. This usually leads to cooler temperatures on average, but the recent heat could have lingering effects on weather and storms for months to come, including what is expected to be an extraordinarily active Atlantic hurricane season.

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Climate Change Added a Month’s Worth of Extra-Hot Days in Past Year

Photo, posted December 21, 2011, courtesy of Maggie Lin Photography via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Death Valley Flooding | Earth Wise

September 13, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Furnace Creek in Death Valley is the driest place in North America. Its average annual rainfall is under two inches. On August 5th, a thousand-year rainfall event dropped 1.46 inches of rain – about three-quarters of a year’s precipitation. The all-time record for a single day is 1.47 inches, set in April 1988. The storm did break the record for the most rain ever recorded in August, which averages just over a tenth of an inch of rain for the entire month.

The flash flood washed debris over roads, swept away and buried cars, knocked a water facility offline, damaged buildings, and stranded about a thousand visitors and staff in Death Valley National Park. By the next day, the flood water had mostly receded, and stranded visitors could be escorted out of the park by National Park personnel.

Death Valley sits at 282 feet below sea level. If it were not for the extremely arid climate there, Death Valley would likely be filled with water. However, humid air masses traveling east from the Pacific Ocean have to cross four mountain ranges before they reach the desert valley. Those air masses lose their moisture in the form of rain on the western slopes of the mountain, leaving a dry area, or rain shadow, on the eastern sides. By the time the air masses reach Death Valley, they are bone dry. On rare occasions, the lowest spot in the valley fills with water forming a wide, shallow lake, known as Lake Badwater.

The extreme heat and aridity of Death Valley evaporates the temporary lake quickly, returning the valley to its usual state. Furnace Creek still holds the record for the highest air temperature ever recorded: 134 degrees Fahrenheit.

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Death Valley Flash Flooding

Photo, posted April 7, 2021, courtesy of Matthew Dillon via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The All-Time Hottest Day | Earth Wise

February 14, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Last year saw record high temperatures in many places around the world and this year started out with more of the same. In mid-January, Onslow, a small town in Western Australia, measured a high temperature of 123.3 degrees, tying the all-time highest temperature ever recorded anywhere in the Southern Hemisphere. The previous reading was also made in Australia back in 1960.

The new temperature record was set just as climate institutions around the world were announcing that the past seven years have been the highest in recorded history.

The list of temperature records set in 2020 and 2021 is a long one. 2020 was the hottest year in recorded history. July 2021 was the hottest month ever recorded. The hottest official temperature ever recorded anywhere in the world was 129.9 degrees, occurring in Death Valley, California on both August 16, 2020, and July 9, 2021.

The hottest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic was 100.4 degrees on June 20, 2020 in Verkhoyansk in Russia’s Sakha Republic. (Amazingly, that small town also holds the record for the coldest temperature ever recorded in Asia at -90 degrees). 2021 saw an all-time high temperature recorded in Europe, in Syracuse, Sicily, on August 11 at 119.8 degrees.

Overall, 400 documented weather stations in communities or outposts worldwide established all-time high temperatures in 2021 alone. The climate we have lived through over the past decades is changing and these changes will have consequences to our way of life.

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Australia hits 123 degrees, tying hottest temperature on record in Southern Hemisphere

Photo, posted January 21, 2013, courtesy of A. Dombrowski via Flickr.

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Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

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July Was A Scorcher | Earth Wise

September 2, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

July 2021 has the unfortunate distinction as being the world’s hottest month ever recorded according to global data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. July is typically the warmest month of the year, but this July was the warmest month of any year on record.

The combined global land and ocean surface temperature was 62.07 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 1.67 degrees above the 20th century average. This was the highest monthly average since records began 142 years ago. It broke the previous record set in July 2016 and tied in 2019 and 2020.

The Northern Hemisphere was 2.77 degrees above average. Asia had its hottest July on record. Europe had its second hottest July on record. Places like Africa, Australia, and New Zealand all had top-ten warmest Julys.

Other aspects of the changing climate included the observation that Arctic sea ice coverage for July was the fourth-smallest in the 43-year record. Interestingly, Antarctic sea ice extent was actually above average in July. Global tropic cyclone activity this year so far is above normal for the number of named storms. In the Atlantic basin, the formation of the storm Elsa on July 1 was the earliest date for a 5th named storm.

It remains very likely that 2021 will rank among the 10 hottest years on record. Extreme heat is a reflection on the long-term climate changes that were outlined recently in a major report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. These latest global observations add to the disturbing and disruptive path that the changing climate has set for the world.

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It’s official: July was Earth’s hottest month on record

Photo, posted July 15, 2021, courtesy of Lori Iverson/National Interagency Fire Center via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.