Sea surface temperatures
FLORIDA, United States, Friday July 25, 2014 – The planet appears to be turning up the jets, setting a global heat record last month hot on the heels of breaking the same record in May.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the average global temperature in June was 61.2 degrees, which is 1.3 degrees higher than the 20th century average, and beat the record set in 2010 by one-twentieth of a degree.
Although one-twentieth of a degree might not sound impressive, “it’s like winning a horse race by several lengths” when it comes to temperature records, according to NOAA climate monitoring chief Derek Arndt.
Arndt went on to reveal that the world’s oceans not only broke a monthly heat record at 62.7 degrees, but it was the hottest the oceans have been on record in any month.
“We are living in the steroid era of the climate system,” he commented.
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The climatologist explained that both the May and June records were driven by unusually hot oceans, especially the Pacific and Indian oceans.
Although the United States had only its 33rd hottest June, heat records were broken in June on every continent but Antarctica. Particularly high temperatures were recorded in New Zealand, northern South America, Greenland, central Africa and southern Asia.
According to NOAA, the first six months of this year were the third warmest first six months on record, trailing 2010 and 1998.
June was the 352nd hotter-than-average month in a row as determined by global temperature records dating back to 1880.
All 12 of the world’s monthly heat records have been set since 1997, more than half of them in the last decade.
All of the global monthly records for low temperatures were set prior to 1917.
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May and June were the hottest months ever as global warming heats up
