For Sixth Month In A Row, World Shatters High Temperature Record

The world was red in November, meaning most of it was
warmer than normal. In fact, despite chill in Antarctica,
November was the world's warmest on record.
So far, December is looking toasty, too.

Another month, another month of insane global high temperatures. 

I didn't get a chance to write this up recently as I was all in with this weeks Vermont December flood. But a week ago, the National Centers for Environmental Information released its report on the world's climate for November, 2023.

November was by far the world's warmest, coming in at 0.7 degrees Fahrenheit above the previous record set in 2015.  Breaking a temperature record by less than 1 degree sounds like a trifle, but on a global basis, setting a new mark by that margin is insane.   

This was the sixth consecutive month that a new world record was set for hottest monthly temperature. It was also the eighth consecutive month that global sea temperatures hit a record high

For those of you keeping track, if you are under the age of 47, you have never seen a global November that was cooler than the long term average.

Given this string of records, 2023 is pretty much assured of being the hottest year on record. That's especially true given that December around the world so far has been wicked toasty, too.

The fact that 2023 will be the warmest year on record is a bit of a surprise. As the year opened, experts knew an El Nino was on the way. El Nino boosts global temperatures. As I've noted ad nauseam at this point, El Nino is working in concert with climate change to boost global temperatures. 

But early this year, the thought was that the full effects of El Nino wouldn't be felt until 2024. So, eleven months ago, the idea was 2023 would be wicked warm, but we'd have to wait until 2024 to see a new record warm year.

So much for that idea. 

In November, the warmest areas compared to average was much of the Arctic, Alaska, northwestern and central Canada, Siberia, eastern Europe, the Mideast, central Africa and central South America. Also, the eastern and central Pacific, thanks to El Nino.

There were a few tiny glimmers of hope. 

As Antarctica was heading toward its summer, November for most of that continent was actually decidedly cooler than average. That probably slowed early season ice melt a little bit, which is great. The Antarctic coolness does very little to slow ice loss and sea level rise, but any last it was a teeny, tiny break for the world. 

The only other relatively cool areas in the world in November were a zone centered on Mongolia, the North Sea, and an area of the Pacific Ocean southwest of South America. 

Also, there were only four tropical cyclones in the world during November, the lowest number since at least 1981

Another minuscule bright note is that the El Nino that is working in concert with climate change to boost world temperatures to record levels might end sooner than many experts anticipated. 

As Fox Weather reports, El Nino, which has been boosting global temperatures in concert with climate change, might wane a bit prematurely.  Says Fox Weather:

"NOAA's latest forecast now suggests El Nino may be over as soon as April - a month earlier than last month's forecast. The probability of El Nino conditions remaining in April has dropped from 62 percent to 37 percent."

A few months after El Nino ends, the sharp increase in global temperatures we've seen during this phenomenon will probably tend to level off. If we eventually flip to a cooler La Nina phase, global temperatures would probably end up a tiny bit cooler than the record levels of 2023 and the expect record high levels of 2024.

That's not exactly big relief. Even during the theoretical "cooler" La Nina conditions that might hit by 2025, global temperatures will probably remain stuck a little above the levels of the La Nina years of 2020 to 2022.

As we know, climate change crises such as wildfires, record, deadly heat waves and unprecedented storms continued in 2020-22, because global temperatures were well above those of the 19th century thanks to climate change.

We should expect more of that kind of awfulness no matter whether we're in an El Nino or La Nina.