Information was based on independent analysis from two agencies, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center.
Jessica Blunden, a climate scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said, “Off-the-charts heat is “getting to be a monthly thing. This is the third month this year that we’ve broken the monthly record.”
NOAA scientists have calculated that the Earth’s average temperature in June hit 16.33 Celsius (61.48 degrees Fahrenheit), breaking the old record set last year by 0.12 degrees Celsius (0.22 degrees Fahrenheit). While the figures don’t seem like a lot, they have shown a consistent rise for the past several years on the global scale.
Blunden explained that while temperature records are usually broken by one or two one-hundredths of a degree, they have not been almost a quarter of a degree like the latest temperature changes.
For the year 2014, weather scientists said for the third time in 10 years, 2014 ended up being the hottest year on record, breaking records set in 2010 and 2005.
Record warm and cooler temperatures recorded by NOAA
There were record warm temperatures across a wide swath of the northeast, central and southwest Pacific Ocean basins, as well as parts of the western Atlantic Ocean, western Caribbean Sea, southern Mexico, northern Scandinavia, Barents Sea, and northern and central Argentina.
There were a few regions that recorded cooler than average temperatures during the first six months of 2015. They included parts of Eastern Canada and parts of the Great Lakes and New England. NOAA also says parts of the north Atlantic Ocean, the eastern Atlantic Ocean off the coast of west Africa, and the Southern Ocean near the tip of South America also recorded slightly cooler than normal temperatures the first half of this year.
This year’s El nino is expected to be one of the strongest on record, reports NASA, and is expected to persist throughout the year. The agency points out that the previous two warm weather records in the dataset before last year, occurred in 2010 and 2005, with both those years featuring El ninos that ended early, rather than persisting through the year.
Separate analysis data on warming temperatures worldwide
A third, separate analysis from the Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) also found June 2015 to be the globe’s hottest June, surpassing June 2014. The JMA’s records date back to 1891.
According to the JMA. “The monthly anomaly of the global average surface temperature in June 2015 (i.e. the average of the near-surface air temperature over land and the SST) was +0.41°C above the 1981-2010 average (+0.76°C above the 20th century average), and was the warmest since 1891. On a longer time scale, global average surface temperatures have risen at a rate of about 0.68°C per century.”
One other data source on warming temperatures
Of interest was an article in the Daily Caller on July 17, 2015. The headline read that Earth was entering its 22nd year without global warming, or to be exact, without “statistically significant warming trend, according to satellite-derived temperature data.”
The Daily Caller cited the University of Alabama in Huntsville’s satellite temperature data, stating there had been no warming trend seen in the satellite records from the University of Alabama. Rather than take the website’s word for this bit of startling information, Digital Journal went to the horse’s mouth, so to speak.
In a report released on Jan. 5, 2015, the University of Alabama, Huntsville released a statement entitled; “Global Temperature Report: December 2014.” In it, they say 2014 was the third warmest year on record, but just barely.
“2014 was the third warmest year in the 36-year global satellite temperature record, but by such a small margin (0.01 C) as to be statistically similar to other recent years, according to Dr. John Christy, a professor of atmospheric science and director of the Earth System Science Center at The University of Alabama in Huntsville. “2014 was warm, but not special. The 0.01 C difference between 2014 and 2005, or the 0.02 difference with 2013 are not statistically different from zero. That might not be a very satisfying conclusion, but it is at least accurate.”
The U of A data found that from 2002 through 2014, temperatures have averaged 0.18 C (about 0.33 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the 30-year baseline average, and the global temperature trend during that same span of time indicated a warming trend at the rate of +0.05 C per decade.
