Earth has just had the hottest January-September on record, the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said today, adding that the average air and sea temperatures in September logged the greatest rise above monthly average in the 136-year historical record.
According to WMO, the Global Climate Report from the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the globally averaged air temperature over land and sea surface temperature for September was 0.90°C (1.62°F) above the 20th century average temperature.
Record warmth was observed across much of South America and parts of Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and Asia.
The year-to-date globally averaged combined temperature of the air over land and ocean surface temperature was 0.85°C (1.53°F) above the 20th century average. This was the highest for January–September in the 1880 record, surpassing the previous record set in 2014 by 0.12°C (0.19°F).
With strong El Nino conditions in place, the September globally averaged sea surface temperature was 0.81°C (1.46°F) above the 20th century average of 16.2°C (61.1°F).
The highest departure for September on record, which beat the record in 2014 by 0.07°C (0.13°F), was 0.25°C (0.45°F) higher than the global ocean temperature for September 1997, preceding the peaking up of the last strong El Nino of 1998.
Earlier this year, WMO reported that the globally averaged temperature for the first half of 2015 was 0.85°C (1.53°F) above the 20th century average of 15.5°C, the hottest for such period on record.
An annual Statement on the Status of Global Climate will be released by WMO in November 2015, the UN climate change conference in Paris, COP-21, analyzing the combination of data. A summary of the global climate in 2011-2015 will be released at the same time.
