Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
This October was the warmest ever recorded, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists announced on Thursday, all but assuring that 2014 will be our planet’s hottest year in more than 100 years.
According to the NOAA October 2014 Global Analysis, the combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for last month was 0.74 degrees Celsius (1.33 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 20th century average of 14.0 degrees Celsius (57.1 degrees Fahrenheit).
The global land surface temperature was 1.05 degrees Celsius (1.89 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 20th century average of 9.3 degrees Celsius (48.7 degrees Fahrenheit), making it the fifth highest for October on record. In addition, global sea surface temperatures were the highest ever recorded for the month, 0.62 degrees Celsius (1.12 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 20th century average of 15.9 degrees Celsius (60.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
In addition, NOAA officials said that the period of January through October of this year was the hottest stretch of its kind ever, said Mashable’s Andrew Freedman. It confirms data previously released by Japanese climate scientists and NASA, he added, and confirms that it would be next to impossible for this year to not set a new all-time annual temperature record.
Image Above: October 2014 Selected Climate Anomalies and Events Map. Credit: NOAA National Climatic Data Center
Deke Arndt, chief of the climate monitoring division at the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in Asheville, North Carolina, told Freedman that in order for 2014 to fail to become the warmest year in recorded history, the months of November and December would each have to be colder than the 10th-warmest such months on record.
USA Today’s Doyle Rice added that this year is on pace to beat 2010 and 1998, the previous warmest years since such records were first kept back in 1880. One of the few places having a colder-than-average year is eastern North America, NOAA said, while five of the last six months (all but July) have established new monthly heat records.
“Last month also marked the 38th consecutive October – and the 356th month in a row overall – with a global temperature that was above average. The last below-average global temperature for October was in 1976,” Rice said. “NASA and Japan’s weather agency, which monitor global temperatures, also called it the hottest October on record. The trend extended to the USA, as well, which notched its fourth-warmest October, NOAA said.”
The USA Today reporter added that the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) is forecasting the above-average warmth trend will continue in December, although the southern plains are expected to see a cooler-than-average month. The best chance for above-average precipitation next month will be in the south, from California through the Carolinas, and the CPC said that there is a 60 percent chance that an El Niño will form over the next few months.
“A record warm 2014 could mark an end in a temporary slowdown in the rate of warming, which scientists think has been caused by a mix of manmade and natural factors, which has lasted for about the past 15 years. One of those factors was cooling ocean waters in parts of the Pacific, which appears to be reversing in a big way,” Freedman said, adding that the US has also just experienced its warmest 12-month period ever, breaking a record set last month.
“Globally, the Southern Hemisphere was record warm for October, while the Northern Hemisphere was third-warmest on record with a record high sea surface temperature,” he added. “Record warmth occurred across much of southern South America and much of southern and western Australia, NOAA said. Record warmth was also observed in parts of southern Europe, the West Coast of the U.S., where California is going to have its warmest year on record.”
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