Worldwide, January Was 7th Warmest On Record, Continuing Earth's Climate Change Trend

The numbers are in, and January was, globally among the top 10 warmest in history. 

As we report every month, January, 2023 was among
the  hottest in history. It came in at 7th hottest.
As you can see by this map, very few areas
were cooler than longtime averages. 

According to the NOAA's National Centers for Environmental information, January, 2023 was the seventh warmest out of the 174 years of NOAA records.  

With just one month clocked in for the year, NOAA has already determined there is more than a 99 percent chance that 2023 will rank among the ten warmest years on record. 

January, 2023 was the 47th consecutive January and 527th consecutive month with temperatures at least slightly above the 20th-century average.

So, as I like to do every time the NCEI monthly summary comes out, I'll point out that if your birthday is this month (February) and you are at or under 44 years of age, you've never seen a month on Earth that was cooler than the long term average.  

The warmest places relative to average were the Arctic, western Europe, the eastern continental United States, all but northeastern Canada, Alaska, and southern South America. 

Pretty much the only places in January that were cool relative to average, were northern Siberia, parts of southwestern Asia, Antarctica and sections of Greenland. 

Where the were cold waves, some of them were intense. As Yale Climate Connections reports, China reported its coldest temperature on record on January 22 with a temperature of minus 63.4.  It was a fairly brief cold wave, and most of China ended up having a slightly warmer than average January. 

Myanmar tied its all time coldest temperature on record at 21 below, 

For the month as a whole, 13 nations and territories - almost all of them in Europe - and their warmest Januaries on record, says Yale Climate Connections. (As I noted on February 14, seven of the United States, including Vermont had their hottest January on record).

No nations or territories reported a record cold January last month. 

At the Earth's poles, the news from January wasn't good. Despite some relatively below normal temperatures, sea ice extent around Antarctica was at a record low last month.  Arctic sea ice was the third lowest of the 45 years they've been keeping track of it. 

If you look at a trend map of global temperatures over the years, you'll see that temperatures reached a new peak at around 2016 and have stayed roughly at that level ever since. 

Climate change goes in fits and starts, so it's not surprising there are periods when the trend line in global warming varies.

We've been in an La Nina pattern for a few years now. A La Nina tends to cool the world a bit, and is a large reason why recent years have been among the top ten warmest, but not THE warmest. 

Still, each of the nine past years were in the top nine warmest, with 2022 placing at #6. 

La Nina is weakening now, though there is a months-long lag on how that will affect the world's temperatures. Many forecasts indicate we might flip to an El Nino pattern by this spring or early summer. 

El Ninos tend to warm the globe. Depending on how strong any upcoming El Nino is, we could easily see the world set a new record for hottest year in perhaps 2024 or 2025,