Home   >   News   >   World   >   Another month, another global heat record broken — by far

Another month, another global heat record broken — by far

July 20, 2015
People cool off in a public fountain past Rome's Palazzo Chigi government office, Monday, July 20, 2015. Temperatures in Rome this week could hit 38-39C (100-102F): sizzling heat and oppressive humidity have gripped Italy this month, with some nights in Rome seeing "low" temperatures hovering near 30C (86F). (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

People cool off in a public fountain past Rome’s Palazzo Chigi government office, Monday, July 20, 2015. Temperatures in Rome this week could hit 38-39C (100-102F): sizzling heat and oppressive humidity have gripped Italy this month, with some nights in Rome seeing “low” temperatures hovering near 30C (86F). (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

FILE - In this June 23, 2015, file photo, people rush a patient to a hospital suffering from heatstroke in Karachi, Pakistan. June was warm nearly all over, with exceptional heat in Spain, Austria, parts of Asia, Australia and South America. Pakistan reported a June heat wave that killed more than 1,200 people, which according to an international database would be the 8th deadliest in the world since 1900. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil, File)

FILE – In this June 23, 2015, file photo, people rush a patient to a hospital suffering from heatstroke in Karachi, Pakistan. June was warm nearly all over, with exceptional heat in Spain, Austria, parts of Asia, Australia and South America. Pakistan reported a June heat wave that killed more than 1,200 people, which according to an international database would be the 8th deadliest in the world since 1900. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Earth dialed the heat up in June, smashing warm temperature records for both the month and the first half of the year.

Off-the-charts heat is “getting to be a monthly thing,” said Jessica Blunden, a climate scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. June was the fourth month of 2015 that set a record, she said.

“There is almost no way that 2015 isn’t going to be the warmest on record,” she added.

NOAA calculated that the world’s average temperature in June hit 61.48 degrees Fahrenheit (16.33 Celsius), breaking the old record set last year by 0.22 degrees (.12 degrees Celsius). Usually temperature records are broken by one or two one-hundredths of a degree, not nearly a quarter of a degree, Blunden said.

And the picture is even more dramatic when the half-year is considered.

The first six months of 2015 were one-sixth of a degree warmer than the old record, set in 2010, averaging 57.83 degrees (14.35 Celsius).

The old record for the first half of the year was set in 2010, the last time there was an El Nino — a warming of the central Pacific Ocean that changes weather worldwide. But in 2010, the El Nino petered out. This year, forecasters are predicting this El Nino will get stronger, not weaker.

“If that happens, it’s just going to go off the charts,” Blunden said.

June was warm nearly all over the world, with exceptional heat in Spain, Austria, parts of Asia, Australia and South America. Southern Pakistan had a June heat wave that killed more than 1,200 people — which, according to an international database, would be the eighth deadliest in the world since 1900. In May, a heat wave in India claimed more than 2,000 lives and ranked as the fifth deadliest on record.

May and March also broke monthly heat records, which go back 136 years. Initially NOAA figured February 2015 was only the second hottest February on record, but new data came in that made it too the hottest, Blunden said. Earth has broken monthly heat records 25 times since the year 2000, but hasn’t broken a monthly cold record since 1916.

“This is what anthropogenic global warming looks like, just hotter and hotter,” said Jonathan Overpeck, co-director of the Institute of the Environment at the University of Arizona.

___

Online:

NOAA June global analysis: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/201506

One Comment

  1. kelly

    November 24, 2017 at 10:10 AM

    Very nice and always successful.
    This is a very good article.
    I’m waiting for you the other article.
    togel singapura

    Reply