Watch the video above: 2014 is on track to be warmest year on record. Mike Drolet reports.
TORONTO – We may have been talking about the unusual cold and snow over the past two weeks, but for climatologists, the discussion has been about another record warm month.
According to the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), October 2014 was the warmest October since records began in 1880, beating out 1983.
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Surprised? Well, while we’ve been experiencing some below-normal temperatures over in North America, the planet as a whole has once again broken a record.
Some notable October 2014 records:
- Australia had its highest nationally-averaged maximum temperature in October, at 2.76 C above the 1961-1990 average
- Austria had its seventh warmest October since national records began in 1767
- Germany had its third warmest October since its records began in 1881
- Denmark had its second warmest October since its records began in 1874
The combined average temperature over land and ocean surfaces was .74 C above the 20th century average of 14 C.
In fact, January to October was the warmest period since records began in 1880.
Not only that, but the past 12-month period — from November 2013 to October 2014 — has been the warmest 12-month period in the past 135 years of record keeping, at .68 C above average. November 2013, May, June, August, September and October 2014 were all the warmest for their respective months.
“It is becoming pretty clear that 2014 will end up as the warmest year on record,” said Deke Arndt, climate monitoring chief for NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina. “The remaining question is: How much?”
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Arndt said this year’s heat is what scientists expect from man-made global warming. Scientists say the burning of coal, oil and gas traps heat, changing the climate.
Part of what’s driving the heat is the incredible warmth in the world’s oceans, Arndt said. The six warmest months on record for the world ocean temperatures have been the last six months. Because oceans are big and slow to change that makes it more likely the world will set a yearly temperature record, he said.
Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann said in an email he hopes the new data will put to rest “the silly ongoing claims that global warming has ‘stopped’ or that there is a ‘hiatus’ in global warming.”
–with files from The Associated Press
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