SAN FRANCISCO: Earth is on pace to tie or even break the mark for the hottest year on record, federal meteorologists say. NASA, which measures temperatures slightly differently, had already determined that September was record-warm.
The average global temperature on land and ocean surfaces in October was the highest on record for this month since 1880, released today the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the United States.
According to the US Meteorological Agency, the global average temperature was 14.0 degrees Celsius, 0.74 degrees above the average for that month in the twentieth century.
This also marks the third consecutive month and the fifth in the last six months with global average temperature record. This July was fourth for that month since records began to be taken.
The WMO qualified its announcement that 2014 would be the warmest by noting “differences in the rankings of the warmest years are a matter of only a few hundredths of a degree, and that different data sets show slightly different rankings.”
In addition to documenting the global warmth, the WMO report highlighted weather extremes that have occurred around the world in 2014. In particular, it said, flooding has been prevalent around the world, including devastating events in the Balkans, Russia, and parts of South America during the first half of the year.
