No Surprise, World And U.S. Had Near Record Warm November, World's Warmest Year In 2024 A Certainty

The world was seeing red again in November. NOAA
reports it was the second warmest on record and
typically of the past few years, it's hard to find
places that were on the cool side during the month. 

 We all knew November would calculate out to be a warm month for the world as a whole and  United States in particular, and it's just been confirmed. 

NOAA's  National Centers for Environmental Information released their monthly report Thursday, and tell us that for the nation as a whole,  the world's superheated trend continued in November.

THE WORLD

Just as in October, November turned out to be the world's second warmest month on record,  coming in a wee bit shy of the record set last year.  Both 2023 and 2024 were warmer than any previous November by a large margin.

In November, 2024, a little under 11 percent of world's surface had record heat, the largest in the database and even more than in 2023. 

As usual, the world was warm almost everywhere. NCEI said Asia had its warmest November on record while South America and Oceania were second warmest. 

Other areas that were particularly warm relative to average were the Arctic, the eastern half of North America, northern and southwestern Europe, Siberia, and northwestern and southern Africa. 

As has so often been the case in recent years, it was hard to find cold spots around the world in November. Parts of the western United States, central Africa, southern Greenland and Antarctica were just a smidge on the cool side. 

The amount of sea ice around the world was the second smallest for November in 46 years. There was about a million square miles less sea ice than the average over the 30 years ending in 2020.

Global tropical storm activity matched a record for November, with 13 named storms. Three of them were in the Atlantic Ocean, which makes November unusually busy there. One of the hurricanes, Rafael, peaked as a Category 3, again, weird for so late in the season. 

Year to date for 2024 is the hottest on record. Basically, the only way this year will end up cooler than last is if we have a civilization-ending meteor strike within the next couple of minutes: Spoiler:  That won't happen. 

UNITED STATES

November was warm across the eastern two thirds of the
United States and just meh in the western third.

November in the Lower 48 of the United States was the sixth warmest out of the past 130 years, says NCEI  The eastern half of the nation was warm, while the western half was near normal, more or less.

Maine, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana had their warmest November on record. The coolest state, relative to average, was Nevada, which had its 38th coolest November out of the past 130 years. 

According to NCEI, Vermont overall had its 11th warmest November in 130 years. As measured in Burlington, it was tied for 10th warmest, so at least everybody is consistent with each other. 

Reversing the very dry national trend we saw in October, November turned out to be the 17th wettest out of the past 130 years in the Lower 48. 

The Plains states, especially down toward Texas and Oklahoma were quite wet, as was northern California and Oregon. Oklahoma had its wettest November on record. Kansas came close, scoring #2 on the November wetness scoreboard. 

Dry areas included the drought-plagued Northeast, southern California, Arizona and Florida. 

Autumn, regarded by climatologists as the period from September 1 to November 30, was the nation's hottest on record. 

Year to date, the nation is still experiencing its hottest year on record.  Some areas are ridiculously on the warm side. An area stretching from Minnesota, through the Great Lakes and across northern New England are running a full five degrees warmer than average for the year so far. That's insane!

However, the United States might or might not mirror the world as a whole as making 2024 the hottest on record. 

As Yale Climate Connections explains:

".....2024 may fall short of the current record holder, 2012.  That year had the 20th warmest December in U.S. history, whereas this month to date has seen cold temperatures in the East roughly balancing warmth in the west, making the month near-average in temperature."

That said, extended forecasts entrench warm air across the western United States, and mixed signals toward the eastern part of the nation, though most long range forecasts trend towards a cool East for the rest of the month. 

We'll touch base on this in January to see how we did.