Record-warm September worldwide
Feds: Last month was quite warm in the Pacific, U.S., elsewhere.
Even by 21st Century standards, September and the first nine months of 2015 were in rarefied territory for warmth, according to the National Climatic Data Center.
With record temperatures in parts of the Pacific, where a mega El Niño has been brewing, the globally averaged temperature for the month was 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th Century average.
The climate center said that constituted the biggest monthly anomaly on record. However, four other months, including three in 2015, were close behind at 1.60; the margin of error is 0.18 of a degree.
The first nine months of 2015 constituted the warmest such period in the database, which dates to 1880, at 1.53 degrees above the 20th Century average.
The first 15 years of this century have been quite warm – and keep in mind that year-to-year variations typically are small – but the January to September figure for this year was about 0.4 of a degree above the 21st Century average.
With the El Niño – the anomalous warming of the vast area of the tropical Pacific – expected to persist through the year, 2015 is almost certain to become the warmest year on record.
Temperatures for the October-through-December period never have shaved more than 0.11 of a degree Fahrenheit from the January-through-September global average.
Even if the final figure for year falls 0.11 of a degree, the annual total, 1.42, would still would trump last year's 1.33, the current No. 1.