Absurdly hot October as Earth sets 8th heat record this year

When 2015 ends in about a month, it is expected to have been the warmest year on record, according to thelatest report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The toasty October put another exclamation mark on a year that has essentially locked up the title of warmest on record.

By NASA’s calculations, October was more than 1°C, or almost 2°F, above the 1951-1980 average for the month – the biggest departure for any month in their archives and the first time any month has exceeded a full degree Celsius. It was 1.76 degrees Fahrenheit (0.98 degrees Celsius) above the 20th-century average.

With only two months left in the year, there is a 99.9 percent chance that 2015 will best 2014 as the warmest year on record, according to Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, which keeps their temperature records. Records go back to 1880. The Pacific Ocean is warmed by El Nino, and it affects the weather conditions around the world.

“This is just a new normal”, Blunden said. “I don’t know what really else to call it”.

Only a few spots were cooler than average in October: Argentina, part of northeastern Canada, scattered regions of western and central Russian Federation and central Japan. Washington state had its hottest October on record, while California, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming had their second-hottest Octobers.

It’s also the hottest January through October for Earth on record, along with the hottest consecutive 12 months on record.

During the first 10 months, record warmth was observed in South America, Central America, western North America, Africa, most of Eurasia, and large parts of Australia, the NOAA report added. That record was set in 2014. And that’s driving the long-term trend relentlessly upward: The coldest month of 2015 topped the warmest month of any year on record before 1990, Dessler said.