November smashes global heat record

18.12.15 By
This article is more than 8 years old

Last month was the hottest November on record by an extraordinary margin, new statistics released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have revealed.

The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for November 2015 was the highest for November on record – at 0.97°C above the 20th century average, breaking the previous record of 2013 by 0.15°C.

This marks the seventh consecutive month, and eighth month in 2015, that a monthly global temperature record has been broken.

For the oceans, the November global sea surface temperature was 0.84°C above the 20th century average, the highest for November on record, surpassing the previous record set last year by 0.20°C.

Strong El Niño conditions were present across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean during November 2015, as evidenced by record warmth across much of this region.

It is now virtually certain that 2015 will surpass 2014 as the hottest year globally on record.

 


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Preview image: Flickr user Stu Mayhew licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Temperature Percentiles chart: NOAA