February Was World's 3rd Hottest, U.S. But Trump Administration Doesn't Want You To Know That,

The world had its 3rd hottest February on record, despite
the supposed "cooling" effect of La Nina. 

February turned out to be the third warmest on record for the world as a whole, according to the latest report from the National Centers for Environmental Information (an arm of NOAA) and other scientific organizations. 

This is the first time in about since May, 2023 - nearly two years -  that a particular month was not the warmest or second warmest on record.

Scientists expected this "cooling" trend if you want to call it that. Global temperatures tend to cool during La Nina episodes of chilly water in the eastern Pacific. 

That the admittedly weak La Nina still resulted in the third hottest February is concerning to say the least, because the effects of climate change appear to overwhelming cooling influences more strongly than ever. 

Before we get into the data, some more outrageousness from the Trump administration regarding this report

TRUMP INTERFERENCE

The Trump administration clamped down on the usual press releases and availability of scientists that the National Centers for Environmental Information, an arm of NOAA that usually accompanies the release of these monthly reports. 

Every month since the George W. Bush administration, these monthly reports had also featured press calls, in which NCEI scientists discuss the report with the press and answer question. 

According to Axios, NOAA blamed the lack of press availability on staff cuts and the anticipation of more firings soon.  This isn't a one-off. NOAA/NCEI do not plan to resume the media briefings. 

There's apparently an even more insidious reason for the lack of a press briefing on the February climate report.  Per Axios:

"According to two sources outside the agency who were privy to deliberations from current employees, NCEI had trouble recruiting scientists to volunteer to be on the calls for fear of angering the administration by discussing human-caused global warming."

The Trumpers have thus once again succeeded in hiding information from the public, or at the very least  making it more difficult to access. I don't blame the scientists for being so reticent. I'm hopping mad at the Trump administration for again trying to create their own "reality" that is contrary to established facts. And using fear and intimidation to do it. 

One reason I'm butt hurt about this is the monthly NCEI press briefings put the issues of global climate in front of reporters, who then broadcast it far and wide. I don't all reporters will just think to read the report as it comes out every month.

If it comes out every month. The Trump minions might just stop the monthly reports altogether. Or alter them so that the reports lie about what's really going on with global temperatures. 

I'm a teeny tiny outlet with a minuscule number of readers (but always looking for more!) I'll continue to report out these monthly NCEI monthly climate checkups. I hope a lot of other bigger, more powerful media outlets do the same. 

THE DATA

 Since we at least still  have an NCEI/NOAA  report this month anyway, we can say areas that were warmest relative to average in February were the Arctic, central South America, ocean areas north of Australia, the central North Pacific, the Caribbean and central North Atlantic Ocean and parts of the Indian Ocean. 

As usual, chilly spots were hard to find on Earth during February, 2025.  Southwestern Canada, parts of northwest and north central United States, bits and pieces of Antarctica, the southern tip of South America and a few spots in the Mideast were a little on the cool side.

Ocean temperatures overall were warmer relative to average compared to land. Land areas had their fourth warmest February, while oceans had their second warmest February. 

That's actually bad news because oceans in a climate change regime store extra heat, as it seemed to be doing in February. Eventually it's released, and the result is eventually record heat waves and sometimes storms on land where most of us people live. 

The La Nina that sort of "cooled" the Earth in February is not expected to last much longer. Neutral conditions - neither La Nina or the world-warming El Nino - are expected by late spring. 

Sometimes La Ninas come back after fading like scientists expect this spring. It could come back for a stay as long as two years, but nobody knows for sure. 

We do know that whatever happens, month after month will score in the top ten warmest, and most of the time probably in the top three warmest indefinitely going forward. By the way, if you are under the age of 46, you have never seen a global February that is cooler than the long term pre-industrial average. 

UNITED STATES

The U.S., in contrast to the world as a whole,
had a fairly close to average February, just
a little warmer than average. 

February climate statistics for the United States came out this week, and it showed the nation had at least a  sort of warm month overall. 

Meteorological winter, December 1 through February 28 was also on the warm side, but definitely  not record-breaking. 

The United States only encompasses a little under two percent of the Earth's surface, so the overall climate trend in February and the rest of the winter likely won't follow global trends. It very often doesn't. 

 In the United States, February for the Lower 48 was just 50th warmest out of the 131 years of record. So on the whole it was a little warmer than the long term average, but not by much. 

The coldest part of the nation relative to average was Montana, which had its 13th coldest February on record. The central and northern Plains and the Pacific Northwest were on the chilly side, too, but not at record cold levels.

The southwestern and southeastern part the Lower 48 were the warmest relative to average. Arizona had its second warmest February on record. New Mexico had its fourth warmest and Florida had its 7th warmest. 

Precipitation was also worked out to be close to average for the Lower 48 as a whole, but of course there were wet spots and dry areas as usual.

New Mexico had its sixth driest February on record. By contrast, Virginia had its fifth wettest February. West Virginia was seventh wettest and Kentucky was ninth soggiest.

In general the northern Rockies, the Mid-Atlantic States and the Northeast away from the coast were on the wet side, while the Plains, southwestern United States and extreme southeastern pars of the U.S. were dry.  

By the way, March in the United States and globally is off to a warm start. So don't expect any real cooling on Earth this month. 

It's Official: January Was World's Hottest, Continuing Alarming Long Trend Of Hottest Months

January was the world's warmest on record, according
to NOAA and other climate measuring agencies.
It was the eight consecutive record hottest 
month for Planet Earth.

January, 2024 was the hottest on record for the world, says NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information. 

It beat out January, 2016, which was itself so ridiculously higher than the previous record that I thought it might be more than a decade or perhaps as much as two decades before we had another record hot January. 

Guess I was wrong!    

January, 2024 was 0.7 degrees Fahrenheit above the previous record warm January back in 2016.  That margin sounds like the tiniest trifle, but on a global scale, that's a pretty wide margin for breaking a world heat record. 

January was also - incredibly - the eighth consecutive month that the world had a record high temperature. 

If you are younger than 48 years old, you've never seen a global January that was at least marginally colder than the 20th century average.

The hottest areas relative to average were the Arctic, northeastern North America, central Russia, the Mideast, almost all of South America most of Asia except an area centered around India and western Africa. 

Here's an interesting tidbit from the NCEI:

"Record warm temperatures covered approximately 12.3% of the world's surface this January, which is the highest percentage for January since the start of records in 1951 and 2.5 percent higher than the previous record of 9.8% in 2016."

If you were looking for cool spots in the world they were few and far between in January. The only chilly areas relative to average were  in northwestern North America, parts of the central and southern United States, parts of Scandinavia, a little bit of Siberia, and notably Antarctica, which managed to have its fifth coldest January on record. 

Even with that summer chill in Antarctica, sea ice extent in the region was the fifth lowest on record. And despite the warmth in much of the Arctic, sea ice extent up there in January was only a little below average. 

Scientists are saying this year has a 22 percent chance of beating out 2023 as the world's hottest year on record. I think the odds of that happening were pegged a little higher in previous months, but lately we've seen the revelation that the end of El Nino seems like it's on the horizon within the next few months. 

Still, with 11 months yet to go this year, the scientists give 2024 a 99 percent chance of being among the top five warmest years on record. 

El Nino tends to increase global temperatures. The reason why this string of recent months have been at record high levels is because El Nino was working in concert with climate change to really boost temperatures. 

We obviously have an unmistakeable warming trend in the world in the age of climate change, but precipitation trends are more murky.

Climate change is increasing the odds of more and more severe droughts in various parts of the world, but it's also increasing the odds that storms and certain weather patterns cause heavier rains than in the past. 

For what it's worth, global precipitation was nearly at a record high level in January. This right after a record wet global December.  

As is pretty much always the case, other organizations that measure global climate agreed with NCEI.  The Japan Meteorological Agency and the European Copernicus Climate Change Service also said  January,2024 was the world's hottest.  

2022 Was A Bad Disaster Year Across The Globe. More Data Is In

Destruction from Hurricane Ian in Florida in 
September, 2022. It was the world's most expensive
weather and climate related disaster of last year.

 The world was beset by around weather-related disasters in 2022 that caused well over $300 billion in damage, according to insurance analysts. 

The actual numbers depend on the analyst, each of which has different methods of establishing losses. 

As Jeff Masters in Yale Climate Connections writes, the insurance broker Gallagher Re counted 42 disasters costing $360 billion, with 39 percent of that being insured losses. 

Meanwhile, another insurance broker, Aon, says there were 37 weather related disasters in 2022 with a total economic loss of $313 billion. That's 4 percent above the inflation adjusted average for the 21st century so far. 

Insurers are seeing a distinct upward trend in the inflation-adjusted cost of disasters since about 1990 and that trend has accelerated in the past decade or so. 

As the insurance analysts note, it's difficult to tease apart what proportion of the disaster losses are brought on by climate change and which part of the problem is created by increases in wealth and exposure to potential disasters. 

Hurricane Ian in Florida during late September is an excellent case in point. It caused roughly a third of the insured and economic losses in the 2022 list of billion dollar disasters.

Climate change might have helped the hurricane reach the high intensity it reached. But the storm hit parts of Florida that have seen intense coastal development, despite the risk of destructive hurricanes with or without climate change. 

The year saw three so-called "mega disasters" defined as a calamity causing ay least $20 billion in damage. The three in 2022 were Hurricane Ian, a drought in the United States (about $21 billion in losses) and another drought in Europe (about $25 billion)

DEATHS

Heat waves tend to be the most deadly type of weather disaster. You wouldn't think so watching the news, because heat waves are simply not that photogenic. Heat waves are sort of the neutron bomb of weather calamities. Buildings, trees, and other property emerge from heat waves largely unscathed, but the human cost is immense.

This was true in 2022. The deadliest disaster last year was extreme heat waves in Europe, which caused about 40,000 direct and indirect deaths, according to a Gallagher Re analysis of country-level excess mortality statistics, as reported by Masters in Yale Climate Connections.  

In terms of direct deaths alone, the worst 2022 disasters were monsoons in India, with 2,047 fatalities and other monsoons in Pakistan, responsible for 1,735 deaths.  

Three African nations, Nigeria, South Africa and Somalia, had their costliest disaster on record in 2022. Nigeria suffered $4.2 billion in damage fro flooding; another flood in South Africa caused $3.5 billion in losses. 

Drought in Somalia that started in 2021 and continued well into 2022 caused $1.1 billion in damage. The figures are adjusted for inflation.  

Draft U.S And World Climate Assessment States The Obvious: Climate Change Is Screwing With Us Already

Several big reports highlight the urgency for participants
in the UN climate conference in Egypt. I hit a few of the
highlights in this post. 

 A couple of big preliminary reports are telling us a lot of what we already know about the current effects of climate change, but they are still very much worth noting:  

The basic message from these reports: Climate change sucks. And it keeps sucking more and more. 

The first report is the United State's Fifth National Climate Assessment. The assessment on how climate change is affecting the U.S. and what is being done about it, must be compiled once every four years, per Congressional mandate. 

According to the draft report:

"Americans are feeling the effects of climate change in their everyday lives, as intensifying extreme events strain public services and outdated infrastructure.....As climate risks continue to increase in scale and frequency, multiple climate hazards and cascading climate impacts are disrupting essential societal systems in every part of the country."

The document says the U.S. has warmed about 68 percent faster than the planet as a whole, or 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit in the continental U.S. 

After a public comment period, updates and editing, the final report should be released next year. I'm not sure whether it will lead to any policy changes. But at least the Biden administration seems to be taking this at least fairly seriously. 

Meanwhile, the World Meteorological Organization released a provisional State Of the Climate Report for 2022  

This is an annual report that summarizes the global state of climate change for the most recent year. Of course, 2022 isn't over yet, but a preliminary world report for the year was released early to emphasize to the UN annual global COP27 climate conference . That conference in Egypt is schedule to end this weekend. 

Like the U.S. report, the World Assessment for 2022 wasn't exactly loaded with cheery news. A main takeaway of this document is that not only are the effects of climate change getting worse, the rate at which things are going down the tubes has increased 

As I've noted in past posts, it seems every month this year has been fifth or sixth warmest on record on a global scale. (October was an exception, coming in a fourth warmest).

This provisional report says they indeed expect 2022 to be the world's sixth warmest year on record. The publication also says that the the years 2015-2022 will be the hottest eight year period since reliable records started around the mid 1850s.

As I've also noted in past posts, it's alarming that 2020 through 2022 have been so warm.  A Pacific Ocean pattern called La Nina has been present through most of this time.  La Nina cools large swaths of the eastern Pacific Ocean, which in turn tends to lower overall global temperatures a little bit. 

Which means this year and last should have been cooler than they were. The opposite pattern in the Pacific, called El Nino, tends to boost global temperatures a little bit. So it will be interesting when the next El Nino inevitably hits. Especially if it's a strong one, like in 1998. 

The report also notes that glaciers globally have taken a huge hit in 2022, especially in Europe, which endured repeated record heat waves over the summer. This year's European glacial loss has accelerated a decades long trend in melting. Switzerland has lost a third of its glacial ice since 2001.

Meanwhile, as The Weather Network reports, global sea level rise is accelerating, with devastating, dangerous effects:

"(Sea levels) continue to rise and are now an average of at least 100 millimeters (about four inches) higher than they were in the early 1990s. Also, the rate that the ocean surface is rising is accelerating. The rate over the past ten years has more than doubled from what it was 30 years ago, and roughly 10 percent of the total rise was seen in just the past two and a half years."

A four inch rise doesn't sound like much, but in low, flat coastal areas, of which there are many, four inches can really worsen flooding, especially when you mix in storms and storm surges. 

Look at it this way.  If a flood inundated the inside of your house with six inches of water, that would be terribly damaging. Then add another four inches to that, and the damage to your stuff is definitely compounded. 

Against the backdrop of these two reports, and many more released in recent weeks, the COP27 climate conference in Egypt continues into the weekend. to November 18.

It's a big global United Nations climate conference with the unwieldy name: The 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change." It's a yearly gathering first started in 1995, hence the 27 in the title.

Yeah, I'll stick with COP27

It IS an important meeting, though. COP27 is a continuation of trying to reach global cooperation on reducing greenhouse emissions, financing climate action and adapting to the growing effects of climate change. 

It's a great opportunity to basically put world leaders in the same room to (hopefully!) collaborate on climate change solutions. 

I know everybody's eyes glaze over when we start talking about big UN conferences, but it's worth watch how this one works out. The more global cooperation the better. 

  

April Was World's Fifth Hottest, Continuing A Consistent Trend

Most of the world was once again warmer than the average
of all the years since 1880. Only the eastern Pacfic
and northwestern North America were on the cool side. 

As I wrote a month ago, it seems like on a global basis, every month for at least the past year or so has been around the fifth hottest on record.  

Add April, 2022 to that list. The month tied with 2010 as the fifth hottest on record, says NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information. 

So, we'll do the same thing we' e done every month, with this slightly updated sentence, taking into account April's global temperature, and quote this familiar sounding sentence from the April report: 

"The 1 warmest April months have occurred since 2010, with the years 2014-2022 all ranking among the 10 warmest Aprils on record. This marked the 46th consecutive April and the 448th consecutive month with temperatures, at least nominally, above the 20th century average."

As always, there were a few small cold pockets in a world of heat. 

North America did manage to have its chilliest April since 2018, which isn't really saying all that much. That was driven by persistent chill in southern Canada and the northern United States west of the Great Lakes. 

The only other notable cool spot, at least relative to the rest of the world, was the eastern Pacific Ocean.

That was a sign that the La Nina pattern is still going full throttle. La Nina is a periodic cooling of swaths of the Pacific Ocean. This normally has a slight cooling effect on the world's temperature as a whole.

But as we've seen over the past year, this "cooling" pressure is preventing individual months from being the hottest on record. But we're still scoring in the top 10 each month.  This is all an ominous sign for when we someday finally flip over to an El Nino, which warms both the eastern Pacific Ocean and the world in general. 

A record setting warm month would likely really set off some dangerous, extreme weather events across the globe. As if we're not having enough of them already. 

Every April temperature for the world as a whole, 
the departure from normal, since 1880. See a trend?

La Nina is forecast to last for several more months at least. That's bad news if you don't like hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico threatening the U.S. coastline. 

La Nina tends to encourage Atlantic hurricanes. It's a big reason why we've had such busy hurricane seasons yearly since 2017. This year is looking bad, too.

Pretty much all the hurricane forecasters are calling for a busy Atlantic hurricane season. The only question is how many of these storms end up hitting the coast. 

The first four months of the year, taken together, are also the fifth warmest on record. Given the ongoing La Nina the year at this point "only" has a 27.8 percent chance of being among the five hottest on record. It's pretty much a lock already for being among the 10 warmest. 

In April, no nation or territory established an all time record high temperature,. That's to be expected, since April is the middle of spring or autumn, depending upon which hemisphere you're in. Obviously, national heat records would be established in the summer. 

However, so far this year, three nations - Paraguay, Uruguay and Australia - have established or tied national heat records. 

 

A Warm Global January Continues The Long Trend; Long Hot Summer In Antarctica Too

January, 2022 was warm in most places in the world 
compared to previous Januaries, continuing a long
unrelenting trend in global warming 

The monthly global climate review from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information came out today to say that January, 2022 followed in the footsteps of much of 2021,  

To wit, January was the world's sixth warmest on record. That follows the trend of 2021, when many months were around fifth or sixth hottest.

That all makes sense, because the ocean patterns are in a La Nina phase, which features cool waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean off of South America. La Ninas tend to cool the world, so we're not seeing the monthly "hottest on record" reports we were seeing during the opposite El Nino a year or two back. 

It all means that climate change is roaring right along, especially since we continue to score "Top 10" warmest months during what should be a cooler phase.   NOAA has already concluded that 2022 will be among the top 10 warmest on record.  Or at least there's a 99 percent chance of that happening. The period of reliable records goes back 143 years. 

And yes, I know we here in Vermont had the coldest January since 2009, but we're a mere dot if that on the globe.  What goes on in Vermont certainly does not stay in Vermont. If you are under the age of 46, you have never seen a global January that was cooler than the 20th century average.

Meanwhile, a warm summer, at least for Antarctica, helped drive drive sea ice extent at the bottom of the world to its second lowest level on record.  If you're looking for a glimmer of hope, of sorts, Arctic sea ice extent was the largest since 2009. But that's not saying much. The Arctic sea ice extent was still below normal for the month. 

We're only half way through February, but I don't see any signs that the global "top ten warmest" trend will end by the time we get all of this month's data in.  

It Was the World's FIfth Hottest June

World had its fifth hottest June. Land masses

had the hottest June, but La Nina cooled the

oceans just a bit, especially in the eastern Pacific,

which lead to June being fifth hottest.

 With all the headlines you've seen here and everywhere else, you'd think the world had its hottest June on record. 

Nope, but it was definitely up there.

NOAA's  National Centers for Environmental Information just put out its monthly snapshot report on the globe, and tells us that it was the world's fifth hottest June. All of the top 10 warmest Junes have been since 2010, says NCEI.

A big factor that kept it from being Number 1 were the oceans. The effects of La Nina cooled those waters off. But just a bit. Ocean waters on average tend to be a little cooler than during the opposite El Nino, especially in the eastern Pacific Ocean. 

The world's land masses, where everybody actually lives, turned to have their hottest Junes on record. This of course was led by the toasty Northern Hemisphere, especially North America, which as we previously noted suffered their hottest June on record. 

Africa as a whole also had its hottest June on record, besting the record for the continent set just last year. Europe and Asia had their second hottest June on record.

The only relatively cool places, relative to average, were India, western Russia and parts of eastern Europe and a piece of western Australia. 

For those keeping track, last month was the 45th consecutive June and 438th consecutive month with temperatures at least a little above the 20th century average. 

See a trend? Global temperatures relative

to the 20th century average for June'

since the 1880s.,

Now that half the year is done, 2021 so far is the eight warmest on record, and very likely to be another year scoring in the Top 10.  The La Nina cycle, which I mentioned above, is keeping this year just under the torrid, hottest pace the world saw in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Though La Nina is forecast to reassert itself a bit, that's not nearly enough to offset the effects of climate change,. Eventually, an El Nino will return, which tends to make the world a little hotter, all other things being equal.

But, with climate change roaring on, an El Nino will probably have us set new record global high temperatures, almost certainly within this decade. All the weather extremes associated with climate change will of course follow suit, much to the detriment of us humans who continue to pump all those greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.