October warmth sets record

Driven in part by profound warming over the tropical Pacific, globally averaged temperatures in October were 1.76 degrees Fahrenheit above 20^th Century average, the National Climatic Data Center said Thursday morning.

Among the 1,630 months in the period of record dating to 1880, that was the highest departure, the center said.

It beat the standard set in September – 1.64 degrees;  the margin of error was 0.13. The first 10 months of the year constituted the warmest such period in the database, and 2015 has all but clinched the title of warmest year on record.

The months with the top 25 above-average departures all have occurred since 1998. That's not surprising given that temperatures change incrementally.

Part of the October warming clearly was related to the ultra-high sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific, which were about 5.5 degrees Fahrenheit above normal, according to the government's report.

Those conditions will persist into the winter, and in case you haven't heard, since weather moves west to east, all that heating of the overlying air will affect the winter over North America.

For us, the consensus is that it will mean a warm start, chilly finish, and perhaps a snow-whopper or two.

Snow-lovers can find some encouragement in the monthly report: October snow cover in Eurasia was way above normal, a condition correlated with above-normal winter snowfall in the Northeast.

In fact, last month's snow-cover extent across the Northern Hemisphere was the seventh-largest in 48 years of data.