Warm April worldwide
It was cooler than the previous two Aprils, but still among the warm elite.
Global temperatures were 1.06 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th Century average, according to the government's National Climate Data Center.
While that was significantly cooler than the April 2010 temperature, and a little lower than 2009's, it still ranked as the seventh-warmest April in the period of record, dating to 1880.
Arctic sea-ice extent was measured at 5.7 percent below average, the fifth-smallest ice extent for any April since the period of observation, which began in 1979.
The Anarctic coverage was 7.7 percent below the average, making if the fourth smallest.
The La Nina cooling event continued to fade in the tropical Pacific, although sea-surface temperatures out that way continued to run below normal.
Not so in the eastern Atlantic, where temperatures came in above average. That trend will bear watching with hurricane season due to begin in just about two weeks.