October Was Globally Another Really Warm Month

The world was very toasty again in October, 2021. 
Note the coolness in the eastern Pacific Ocean. That 
is a sign of La Nina, which should have helped
cool the world just a bit. Not this year. 

 New data was released Tuesday indicating October for the world as a whole was the fourth warmest on record.  

The month across the globe came out to average 57.2 degrees, or 1.6 degrees hotter than the 20th century average, says the National Centers For Environmental Information or NCEI. 

That departure from normal might not seem like much, but if you average the whole world's temperature and come up with something that far above normal, that's pretty impressive. 

Octobers are now two degrees warmer than they were way back in the 1880s. Says the NCEI:

"The last eight Octobers (2014-2021) all rank among the eight warmest Octobers on record. October, 2021 also marked the 45th consecutive October and 442 consecutive month with temperatures at least nominally, above the 20th century average."

Basically, if you're about 37 years old or younger, you've never seen a month for the world as a whole that was cooler than average. 

The eastern half of North America, northern Russia a good chunk of South America and southwestern China were especially toasty, relative to average in October. For the record, NCEI ranks Vermont as having its third warmest October on record. 

With a warm year almost in the books, 2021 is pretty much a shoo-in for one of the top ten warmest years on record. NCEI gives it a more than 99 percent chance of happening.

By the way, this warm year is happening despite a La Nina pattern in the Pacific Ocean. A La Nina pattern creates cool water in the eastern Pacific.  This, in turn tends to turn the whole world just a bit cooler, so this year's global balminess overcame that. 

I'm starting to become afraid as to what will happen when we eventually flip over to the opposite pattern, an El Nino, which tends to boost global temperatures.