New global heat records set for October and year-to-date

The average global temperature in October was 58.86 degrees Fahrenheit, or 1.76 degrees higher than the 136-year average, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It marked the first time a monthly temperature anomaly exceeded 1 degrees Celsius in records dating back to 1880.

Last month was the hottest October since record-keeping began 136 years ago, federal scientists announced Wednesday, setting up 2015 to be the warmest year on record.

The planet’s temperature departure from the long-term average of 1.04 Celsius in October is the greatest of any month ever recorded by NASA. Global monthly temperature records have been shattered 32 times since 2000, the AP reported.

But when you add in a super-charged El Nino on top of a planet being continually warmed by greenhouse gas emissions, you wind up with years that are literally off the charts.

“The year-to-date (January-October) was also record warm”.

“The year-to-year variability is kind of interesting and it makes for good news stories, but what we really like to look at are trends over decades”, he said. Even when this year’s El Niño fades, its effects are likely to linger long enough to boost temperatures well into 2016, Kunkel said.

The last major El Niño peaked in 1998, driving that year’s average global temperatures to a record high that stood until 2014.

“This was the highest for January-October in the 1880-2015 record, surpassing the previous record set past year by 0.22 F (0.12 C)”, said NOAA. Washington state had its hottest October on record, while California, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming had their second-hottest Octobers. That’s the hottest October on record by a third of a degree over the old mark, “an incredible amount” for weather records, said NOAA climate scientist Jessica Blunden.

As a result, it’s not a surprise that the first 10 months of 2015 were the warmest for such period on record. “Regionally, Oceania and the African continent were both record warm”.

Record heat was found in Australia, southern Asia, parts of western North America, much of central and southern Africa, most of Central America and northern South America, according to NOAA.