World Just Saw Its Fourth Hottest October On Record

Most of the world was warm once again in October. NOAA
says it was, globally, the fourth warmest October on record.

 The numbers are in from NOAA, and for the world as a whole, October, 2022 was the fourth warmest on record.

The data with this goes back 113 years. 

This October was "cooler" than only the recent Octobers of 2015, 2019 and 2018.

This October broke with consistency just ever so slightly.  Most months this year were fifth or sixth hottest on record.  So this October, by comparison, was ever so slightly steamier.

The Northern Hemisphere had its second hottest October on record, and Europe came in at #1 hottest October. 

You have never seen an October on Earth that was cooler than average unless you are age 47 or older. 

The warmest parts of the world, relative to average, were across most of Europe, northern and western North America, and large swaths of Asia and Africa.

In the United States, it was warmer than average in the western third of the nation and in New England, and a little on the cool side in the Southeast. 

Speaking of the above-mentioned sixth place placing for several months this year, 2022 to date is running as sixth hottest on record. At this point there's a 99 percent chance 2022 will be among the top ten hottest Earth years on record. But there's only a two percent chance of it landing in the Top 5.

An ocean and atmospheric pattern called La Nina has been going on for more than two years now and is persisting even now. La Nina dramatically cools the water in the eastern Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America. La Nina's also tend to cool the Earth as a whole a little bit. So it's disconcerting that we're having such a warm year globally.

Other highlights of the report showed that the ice extent in October was the second lowest on record in Antartica and eighth lowest on record in the Arctic.