As El Nino Was Brewing, May Was World's Second Hottest On Record

May, 2026 was the world's second hottest on record.
An El Nino has started, which is expected to work 
with climate change to bring global temperatures
 to new and dangerous heights. 

 We're closing in on the end of June, and I realize I never did do my monthly fever check of the world in May 2026. 

As has been the case for years now under the onslaught of climate change, the world continues to run a very high fever.

May, 2026 was the world's second hottest on record, trailing only 2024, the NOAA's National Centers for Environment Information tells us. If you are under the age of 50, you have never seen a May in which the world was even a little cooler than average. 

Climate change has been with us for half a century, and in the past couple of decades, that has gotten more and more obvious.

The warmest places relative to average were much of the Arctic and Antarctica, central Canada and the northwest United States, western Russian, much of southwestern Asia and parts of the North Pacific.

The Pacific Ocean off the west coasts of Mexico and northwestern South American were very warm. That was a sign that El Nino was building. 

Officials declared this month that El Nino is underway. It's forecast to reach record intensity. Since El Ninos tend to warm the climate, a combination of an extreme El Nino and climate change is bad news for the next several months at least. El Nino is expected to peak this winter. 

More intense and longer heat waves, intense droughts and storms are on the horizon for many parts of Earth. Buckle your seat belts, it's going to be a rough ride. 

As usual, you could find a few cooler spots around the world. Those included centra South amerce, northeast Russia, western Australia, Southern Africa, eastern Antarctica and a portion of the North Atlantic south of Greenland. 

That "cold blob" south of Greenland is ominous, too. It's a sign that fresh water from melting glaciers in Greenland is messing with the currents in the Atlantic Ocean. If the warm currents that keep western Europe mild collapse, there could be sudden and extreme changes to the climate in Europe and elsewhere. Nobody is prepared for these changes. 

So yeah, I'm full of good news with this post.

Let's move on to how the United States has been doing. 

UNITED STATES

May, 2026 was warm out West and a little cooler
but not extremely so in the East. 

May was the 28th warmest, or 105 coolest, if you want to look at it that way, says NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information. 

As had been the case all winter and early spring the west was on the warm side while eastern states were somewhat cooler. Three states - Washington, Oregon and Florida, had one of their top ten Mays on record. 

No state had a particularly cool May. The state that came closest to a chilly May was West Virginia, which had the 39th coolest May out of the past 131 years. Here in Vermont, it was the 51st coolest out of the past 131 years. 

The United States had its  55th driest on record, or 78th wettest May on record NCEI says. Idaho, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan had one of their top ten driest Mays on record. On the other hand, top 10 wettest May honors for 2026 go to Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana. 

Vermont, as you might remember, was also on the damp side. The Green Mountain State had its 19 wettest May out of the past 131 years. 

It won't be long until we have our June summary to see how the start of El Nino is affecting us and the rest o the world. That report should come out in mid-July.

World Had Fifth Warmest January Despite Arctic Block That Kept Parts Of Europe, U.S.

January was the worlds fifth warmest on record 
Blocking high pressure in the Arctic kept that
region exceptionally warm, while parts of 
Europe and North America were 
a little cool as a result of that blocking

It might have seemed cold locally, but the world had its fifth warmest January on record, according to NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information. 

"This marks the 50th consecutive January (since 1977) with temperatures, at least nominally, above the 20th -century average. The 10 warmest Januarys on record have occurred since 2007, with the most recent five years (2022-26),"  NCEI noted in its monthly report.    

When you look at the data and maps from this monthly report, you can really see in this report how a persistent blocking pattern messed with temperatures in the northern hemisphere. 

High pressure over the Arctic and Greenland made that area super warm compared to average. That was especially true in northern and western Greenland and northeastern Canada.

Meanwhile, this pattern squashed the frigid air in the Arctic southward. That's why the eastern United States, northern and central Europe and most of the western two thirds of Russia were on the cool side.  

The cold air was also forced to spread out over a larger land area by this pattern, helping keep the world's January as a whole cooler than it otherwise would have been overall. Also, the effects of La Nina, which tends to cool the world, would be peaking roughly about now. 

No areas came close to the coldest on record. 

Fifth hottest is still impressively warm. Given the factors above, January shouldn't have been that warm. Climate change is still ruling the roost. As we previously reported, an El Nino is brewing for later this year, and that could bring the world's temperature to new and dangerous heights late this year or in 20247. 

In January, 2026, besides the Arctic, other areas that were much warmer than normal were Africa, which had its warmest January on record. Other hot areas include central Asia, southern Australia, much of western Canada, the western United States and the Atlantic Ocean between the Caribbean and Africa. 

UNITED STATES

The data confirms it: We had a remarkable west-east divide during January. 

Data confirms the Lower 48 had a warm west and a 
cold east Note that western temperatures were
near record highs, while eastern temperatures
were generally just somewhat cooler than average.

The East had a real winter, while the West was having a year without a winter in January. As NCEI tells us: 

"Temperatures were much above average across a large portion of the western third of the (United States). Oregon, California, Utah and Arizona each had one of the six warmest starts of the year. Along with Washington, Nevada and New Mexico, they each recorded their warmest December-January period on record."

Thought the East was cold, the chill didn't come close to breaking records for the month. Ohio came the closest, ending the month as 31st coldest out of the past 132 years. Pennsylvania was 32nd coldest .

For the record, we in Vermont had our 75th coldest January, or 57th warmest January, depending on how you want to look at it. 

Mix it all together and the United States ended up having its 19th warmest January. 

Precipitation was scant, despite a wide-ranging winter storm toward the end of the month. January ended up as the eleventh driest on record for the Lower 48. The Northwest and northern Rockies were particularly dry. Oregon and Montana had their fifth driest Januaries on record. 

Only four states - Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico and Wisconsin were noticeably wetter than average and even those states did not come anywhere close to record wet.

Here in Vermont, we had our 48th driest January out of the past 132 years.  

January had a few other impressive weather events that I missed as they unfold.

On January 8 and 9 rare winter flash flooding occurred in parts of Wisconsin and Illinois amid a burst of record warmth that brought temperatures in the low 60s, and heavy rain. Up to three inches of rain fell near Chicago.  Chicago had as much rain in one day as they normally have in the entire month of January. 

Alaska had rough January. We already reported on the epic, record snows around Juneau in December and early January, which were followed by flooding. But two of Alaska's other larger cities had their own issues. 

The temperature in Fairbanks never got above zero for 32 consecutive days ending on January 14. That's the longest stretch of continuous subzero cold in more than 100 years.  Down in Anchorage, January snowfall set a record with 40.2 inches of snow.

On the warm side of things, St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands had their warmest January on record with an average temperature of 81.6 degrees.

 

November Global Temperatures Were 3rd Warmest On Record

November, 2025 was the world's third warmest on
record. As usual, it was hard to find the few
cooler than normal areas (in blue)

 Continuing a trend that started half a year ago, the world had its third warmest November on record, according to NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information. 

 This was the sixth month in a row that the world had a third warmest month, in each case just behind 2023 and 2024. 

The warmest places relative to normal were in the Arctic, most of the Northern Hemisphere land areas, eastern Antarctica, southern Africa and eastern Europe. 

As always in this age of climate change, November cool spots were hard to find. Those few relatively chilly areas included northeastern Russia, parts of the central an eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, bits and pieces of Australia, and a persistent cold blob south of Greenland. 

We do the following every month to show how entrenched climate change has become: If you under age 49 you have never seen a month that globally was even a tiny bit cooler than the 20th century average. 

Depending upon how the December figures come out, 2025 will either be the third hottest year on record, to it will tie with 2023 as second hottest. Last year was the globe's hottest since people starting keeping reliable records in the 1850. 

The warm November contributed to a year that's messing with a key climate goal the United Nations set nearly a decade ago. 

The UN in 2016 adopted a legally binding compact -- the Paris Agreement -- that aims to keep global temperatures no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the 20th century agreement.

As Yale Climate Connections reports, it looks the warmth of this year will mean the three-year average temperature, 2023 -2025 will end up warmer 1.5 degree Celsius. 

Does that mean the Paris Agreement is violated? Depends on who you ask, because nobody really defined the parameter of what 1.5 degrees mean in the real world. But my opinion, yes. 

The World Meteorological Organization's 2024 State of the Global Climate Report states that they've convened a panel of experts to determine how exceeding the 1.5 degrees would be defined and tracked. 

We probably will have a few more years that average less than 1.5 degrees below the 20th century average, but they will become  increasingly rare.

Elsewhere, climatologists also like to keep an eye on Arctic and Antarctic sea ice, as those are a key indicator of the planet's climate health. 

The news from the top and bottom of the world was not good. Arctic sea ice in November was the second lowest on record for this time of year. Once we got into December, Arctic sea ice ran neck and neck with 2016 as the least on record. 

Antarctica sea ice was the fourth lowest on record, at least since satellites started keeping track of it in 1978. Only 2016, 2023 and 2024 had less ice way down under. 

UNITED STATES

November in the Lower 48 of the United States was the fourth warmest on record. 

November in the Lower 48 of the U.S was the
fourth warmest on record States in darkest 
red had their warmest on record November. 

The warmth was especially strong in the western United States. Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Texas and Utah had their hottest November on record. Utah shattered the record by more than a degree, which is a really impressive

New Mexico had its second warmest November. Colorado, Oklahoma and Wyoming each had their third warmest November. 

When the western part of the nation is warm, more often than not, the eastern part is cool. That was true in November, 2025. But the eastern chill was not nearly as extreme as the western balminess. 

The state-by-state rankings go back 131 years. The "coldest" state in the rankings, was New York, which had its 67th warmest, (or 64th coolest) November on record. Here in Vermont, we had our 62nd warmest November out of the past 131. So pretty much in the middle of the pack.  

The Lower 48 had its 26th driest November out of the past 131 years. Dry weather was well distributed around the nation, but the southeast corner of the U.S. was especially arid. South Carolina had its second driest November, and in Florida, it was third driest. 

Only three states - Arizona, California and South Dakota were noticeably wetter than average, but were not nearly soggy enough to threaten any records. 

Meteorological autumn- September 1 through November 30, was the third warmest on record in the Lower 48. This autumn, all states in the Lower 48 except the Carolinas were at least 1 degree warmer than the 20th century average. 

Seven states - Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Washington - had their warmest autumn on record.  Remarkably, everyone west of the Mississippi Rivet had one of their top 10 warmest autumn on record. All those states except California had one of their top five hottest falls. (California only had its tenth warmest. 

For the record, Vermont overall had its 23rd warmest autumn out of the past 131 years.  

El Nino Might Be Looming. That Might Turn A Climate Changed Hot World Torrid

Schematic showing how an El Nino develops.
Many climate watchers think a new El 
Nino will develop next year, possibly
causing more record high temperatures
for the world, 

 A (mostly) natural global weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean might propel global temperature to new heights next year. 

It's all about the familiar El Nino and La Nina cycle. 

In general, La Nina brings cool water to the eastern Pacific off the coast of South America.  In turn, global temperatures fall slightly. 

The opposite, El Nino, warms up those Pacific Ocean waters off of Chile and the whole world gets a little warmer. 

Which wouldn't be that big a deal without climate change.  

But climate change led to the El Nino year of 2023 becoming the hottest on record. Until 2024, when that record was broken. 

This year has brought mostly either La Nina or neutral conditions. And the good news is 2025 is turning to be cooler than last year. But barely. There's a chance it could tie 2023 as second warmest, but will probably end up at Number 3. Even if it ends up Number 3, it will be much warmer than what would become the #4 spot, 2016. 

What worries scientists, then, is 2025 barely cooled off from the hot times of the two previous years, despite a La Nina for at least part of the year. 

Now, signs are stirring that might point to a new warm El Nino in 2026. If that happens, we could get another record warm year in 2026 or 2027.  We would face even more intense deadly heatwaves, stronger floods than we've already been seeing, and worse droughts. 

The Washington Post describes the initial signs of a possible El Nino this way: 

 "Typically, winds blow from east to west across the tropical Pacific Ocean, forming a predictable pattern called trade winds. These trade winds cause some of the planet's warmest ocean water to pile up in the western Pacific near Papua, New Guinea and the Philippines. But a few times a year on average, winds weaken and reverse direction, blowing from west to east at about 15 mph for a few weeks - forming a westerly wind burst."

This affects an area of Pacific Ocean water south of Guam that's the hottest in the world. The westerly wind burst pushes some that water across the Pacific toward Chile. It takes two or three months for this process to happen, so the warmer water would be near the South American west coast in early 2026.

However, as WaPo explains, one westerly wind burst does  not an El Nino make. You need a few of them to get a decent El Nino going. Which means we might not get an El Nino and if we do, we don't know how strong it will be.

Stronger El Ninos have a greater effect on global temperatures than lame ones.  

For now, NOAA predicts weak La Nina conditions we had in November to continue well into this winter, but transition to neutral conditions by late winter. Than means the eastern Pacific ocean waters won't be particularly warm or cool. 

The NOAA forecast doesn't get its what might happen after early spring. 

However, the private climate consulting company Climate Impact Company is forecasting El Nino conditions to begin taking hold in the spring. The forecast is based on various computer climate models. 

The Climate Impact Company forecasts notes that the northeastern Pacific ocean has warmed up a lot recently, and that is often a precursor to an El Nino.

The World Meteorological Organization predicts that if an El Nino develops, it won't be until after April 2026. 

November was the world's third warmest on record, even with a weak La Nina. You'd think November would have been a little cooler, since La Nina has been going on for several months now. 

So you can imagine how the global heat might be turned on big time if we get an El Nino, especially if it turns out to be jumbo sized. 

he weird heat waves and big storms that keep popping up in the news seem a little terrifying now. Wait until things really heat up.  

Carbon Emissions Set To Set New Highs This Year

Global fossil fuel emissions are continuing to rise
in 2025, despite increases in renewal sources
like solar and wind. 

The only real way to blunt climate change is to reduce and even end humans' nasty habit of belching ton after ton of fossil fuel emissions into the atmosphere.  

So far, it's not working. 

Per the Washington Post: 

"Fossil fuel emissions are projected to rise by 1.1 percent, amounting to 38.1 billion metric tons of fossil carbon dioxide emissions in one year, the report found." 

This is another nail in the coffin for the goal to keep Earth beneath a 1.5 degree Celsius warming threshold that many experts said would constitute catastrophic warming. 

"Catastrophic" is in the eye of the beholder of course. But the world is still slightly below that 1.5 degree threshold, and climate change is already killing thousands of people annually at minimum, and is causing billions of dollars in damage. 

Going past the 1.5 degree warming Greenland ice sheet melting would accelerate to sea level rise enough to threaten cities around the world. Heat and humidity would make big swaths of the world essentially uninhabitable. 

Crop failures, disease and weather disasters would greatly accelerate, according to scientists. 

Already, right now, heat waves are much worse and more frequently than they used to be. Storms are stronger, deadlier and more destructive. 

In another recently released report. the International Energy Agency says that under current policies, the world will have warmed nearly 3 degrees Celsius by 2100.

Even if nations stick to strict clean energy policies that would make worldwide coal and oil demand peak by 2030, warming would still be close to 2.5 degrees. 

United States emissions will probably increase by 1.9 percent this year. Driving the increase was a somewhat colder winter than the previous two. Plus, natural gas prices went up, so there was a corresponding increase in coal consumption. 

It looks like big emitters like China and India will have only slight increases in 2025. China's annual emissions unto increases until recently have been huge, but it has slowed way down in recent years, they've plateaued. This year, their fossil emissions are expected to increase just 0.4 percent over last year. 

India's emissions will only increase by 1.4 percent this year, less than previous years. But that might be because record heat was less widespread in India this year than recent seasons so air conditioning use was lower. 

The bottom line is renewable energy is growing by leaps and bounds, but energy demand is outstripping that. 

It does seem like the goal post for peak fossil fuel emissions keep moving. Over the past few years, we keep getting told that peak fossil fuel emissions are imminent, and would soon start to decline. But it never happens. 

Per the Washington Post:

"'The expectation is that Chinese and global fossil CO2 emissions should peak soon based on growth in renewable energy,' said Glen Peters, a senior researcher at the Center for International Climate Research and one of the Carbon Budget report's authors 'But emissions keep growing, making the peak always seem like it is one year away.'"

BRIGHT SPOTS

Although global fossil fuel emissions are rising more slowly over this decade so far than previous decades, so the hope of an eventual reversal in emissions is still alive. Maybe barely, but alive.

 There are some bright spots in the annual emissions reports. Emissions in at least 35 countries have decreased in the past decade while their economies have grown. Many developing countries have radically increased their solar and wind power capabilities. 

Also, the BBC tells us:

"Electricity generated from fossil fuels is forecast to flatline or even decline slightly this year, according to the think tank Ember, for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic". 

That's despite the fact that electricity demand increased sharply this year. The extra demand has been more than met by solar generation, and to a somewhat lesser extend, wind power.  

World Had 3rd Warmest September Amid String Of Global Heat Waves

Graphic from Berkeley Earth showing most of the 
world was once again much warmer than normal
in September, the 3rd hottest on record. No
data from NOAA due to government shutdown. 

 Every month, I highlight a report from NOAA that takes a snapshot at the global climate for the previous month. 

During October, I didn't give the September report because it didn't exist. At least not from NOAA.

The federal government shutdown meant nobody at NOAA compiled the data or wrote a report.

After awhile, remembered that other groups also put monthly reports together. One of them is Berkeley Earth, an organization that provides open source environmental and climate data.

Berkeley Earth concluded that the world's September was the third warmest on record. Only 2023 and 2024 were hotter. It's worth noting that September, 2025 was much, much warmer than any other September prior to 2023. The three most recent years have been in a league of their own. 

The trend line for this entire year makes it appear 2025 will easily end up as the third warmest year on record, behind 20342 unless the end of the year is incredibly cold.  Preliminary data indicates October was probably globally much warmer than the long term average. 

In September, 2025, the highest temperature relative to their local averages were in almost all of North America, northeast Asia, the Arctic Ocean, North Pacific Ocean and around much of Antarctica. 

As always in our climate change world, it was hard to find any cool spots. But also as usual, a patch of the North Atlantic was relatively cool.

Berkeley Earth says their data is pretty accurate, but not quite as accurate as they'd like.  The problem is  some missing data from NOAA.

I'm not sure what happened with that NOAA data, but my guess is it all goes back to NOAA's brass and the Trump administration. Cutbacks. Blocking any information that risks highlighting climate change. Incompetence at the top, but not among the rank and file scientists just trying to do their jobs despite the interference of political hacks above them.

Since late August. some of NOAA's climate archives are broken or incomplete. Berkeley Earth draws from many data services, so NOAA's Trump-induced shortcomings. 

For some reason, "(In) NOAA's flagship climate monitoring program, the defects are strongly clustered with NOAA failing to report nearly all observations from China, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, Spain and certain other areas. 

These weather stations continue to be operated by their local meteorological agencies, but their observations have not been capture day NOAA aggression services."

Berkeley Earth said they hoped that NOAA or somebody else will incorporate the data, reducing the uncertainty in that data.  

OTHER MEASUREMENTS

Other organizations measure Earth's temperature on a monthly basis and came to the same conclusion as Berkeley Earth. 

The European Copernicus Climate Change Service also concluded September was the third hottest on record. 

Copernicus also gives us data for Arctic and Antarctic sea ice. The ice data is particularly  important because the Arctic always reaches its minimum ice extent in September, and Antarctica reaches its maximum.

Arctic sea ice had its 13th lowest minimum in the past Antarctic ice had its 3rd lowest maximum on record .

Not the worst news ever in the land of ice, but certainly not great, either. 

August Was World's Third Hottest, In Line With Most Months This Year

As it has for several years now, the August world
map of whether temperatures were above or below
the 20th century average shows almost
 exclusively on the warm side. 

The latest monthly report on the state of the global climate tells us August was the world's third hottest on record. 

That's the same as most recent months, as this year continues to trend just a tad cooler than the record global heat of 2023 and 2024. But other than those two years, August was easily warmer than any other in at least the past 150 years. 

The top ten warmest global Augusts have all occurred since 2015. 

El Nino, which tends to heat the world even above those caused by climate change, boosted temperatures in 2023 and 2024. 

 El Nino is not active, so it's mostly just climate change keeping temperatures above previous years.

Land areas had their fourth warmest August, and oceans had their third warmest August. Warmest areas included the Arctic, which had its second warmest August on record after 2023. Other particularly hot areas were most of the northern Pacific Ocean, far eastern Asia, western and northern Europe, northern Siberia, the Caribbean, eastern and northern South America, and adjacent South Atlantic Ocean waters. 

Unprecedented heat waves hit Spain, France, Japan, and sections of the Middle East. 

 Cooler than average temperatures, as usual, were hard to find in August. The only places that were a wee bit on the chilly side were parts of the southeast United States, eastern Europe, Far East Russia, a couple little sections of Africa, a perennial little cold spot in the North Atlantic south of Greenland and parts of Antarctica.

There was actually a small dot in the southern Pacific Ocean that had a record cold August, which is relative rarity in this age of climate change. 

The bottom line is that 2025 will offer a break of sorts from two consecutive record hot years the world had in 2023 and 2024.  The bad news is 2025 will certainly be in the top five list of warmest years. 

Meteorological summer, running from June 1 through August 31 was also the third warmest on record. 

The streak of warmest ever global temperatures from 2023 and 2024 extended into January, which was the hottest on record. Since then, each month this year was third hottest after the previous two years. Except for April and May, which were the second hottest on record for the world. 

I'm already guessing that 2026 also might not break the 2024 record for global heat. La Nina, the opposite weather pattern of the heat-adding El Nino is beginning to take over, according to latest NOAA forecasts.

At the moment, it doesn't look like it will be a particularly strong one, and it might not last very far into 2026.  But that could keep next year comparatively "cool."  Meaning there's a decent chance the world won't get as hot as 2024. 

However, there is no sign that climate change will ever go away. The world will keep getting hotter, and we will have another year - probably soon rather than later - that we'll have yet another record hot year. 

 

 

The 2025 Trend Continues: July Was World's 3rd Warmest

Once again in July, 2025, it was hard to find places
that were cooler than the longtime 20th century
average. Parts of Antarctica and few other
small isolated places were cool, that's it. 

 July, 2025 followed a familiar climate trend we've seen so far this year: It was the third warmest on record, just behind the boffo hot summers of 2023 and 2024 across the world. 

This according to data from the National Centers for Environmental Information. 

Julys figures are in line with recent months, most of which were the third warmest on record. 

The data is yet another piece added to the mountain of evidence that climate change has transformed the world and might be accelerating. 

By the way, all ten of the world's hottest Julys have happened since 2016. It was the 49th consecutive July with above average temperature. It shows the climate has been changing mostly due to human influence for at least a half century. 

In July, 2025, the hottest spots relative to average included northwestern Europe, most of China along with Japan and the Koreas; northern Africa, most of the northern Pacific Ocean, the Caribbean and much of eastern Nort America. 

As we've consistently seen in recent years, cool spots were hard to find in July, 2025 but they were there. This time, we could find chilly areas relative to the long term average in parts of Antarctica, western Australia, parts of  India, central South America, a relatively small area in central North America straddling the U.S. Canadian border and a piece of the North Atlantic Ocean south of Greenland and east of Labrador. 

This year through July is still ranking as the second hottest on record, behind last year. NOAA gives this year a 99 percent chance of being among the top five warmest on record, but only a 1 percent chance of being the absolute warmest.  The record for world's hottest year in 2024 looks safe. For now. 

UNITED STATES

Most of the United States heat in July was 
concentrated in the eastern third of the nation. 

The Lower 48 of the United States had its 19th hottest out of the past 131 Julys in the National Centers for Environmental Information data base.  

Two states - West Virginia and Virginia - had their hottest July on record this year. Nineteen other states, including Vermont had one of their top ten hottest Julys.  

The interesting thing was the warmth was driven largely by very warm overnight temperatures. 

The nation had its fifth warmest average July low temperatures. Twelve states had the warmest July daily low temperatures on record.  The United States had its 33 wettest July out of the past 131 years. 

Nights have generally been warming faster than daytimes. Increased humidity  helps hold nighttime temperatures up. Since a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, this all makes sense. 

The Plains states and California were relatively cool, but not among the coolest on record. For instance, North Dakota had their 58th coldest and Texas had their 60th chilliest July.  In other words, something akin to what the mid-20th was like, before climate change really took hold. 

The United States had its 33rd wettest year. But rainfall really varied from place to place. New England was dry, a hint of a drought that began hitting the region in earnest this month. New Hampshire had its 7th driest July, and in Maine it was 8th driest. (Vermont was 27th driest).

Elsewhere, Utah had its second driest July and Alabama had its 6th driest.

Some places, by contrast, were pretty wet. Amid its hottest July, Virginia also had its fifth wettest July, so the humidity must have been miserable. The Midwest was generally wet, with Iowa logging its second soggiest July of the past 131 years. 

To confirm that this year has been the summer of flash floods, the National Weather Service issued a total of 1,434 flash flood warnings this July, the second highest July total in 40 years. There were 17 flash flood emergencies issues, along with more than 2,000 preliminary flood related storm reports.  

World Had Third Hottest June As Climate Change Rolls On

The world was hot again. June, 2025 was the third
hottest on record. Only 2023 and 2024 were warmer, 

Predictably,  June turned out to be the world's third warmest on record, says the National Centers for Environmental Information. 

In a logical world, this shouldn't be happening. Month after month has scored in the top three list of hottest global months, with only a handful of exceptions. 

Climate change rolls on. Thus, this post will seem a bit familiar to past monthly summaries. But remember, essentially, the more things stay the same, the worse they get for Planet Earth. 

After month after month of all time record warmth in 2023 and 2024, we've settled  back into a pattern where most months are the second or third hottest on record.   

I suppose we should be a tiny bit happy, because if you look super closely, there were some minor hints of a temporary cooling trend in June.  Even if those hints are just clutching at straws, 

 June, 2025 was the first month since May, 2023 where the global temperature was a it less 1.0 degrees  Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit) warmer than the 20th century average. 

The temperature anomaly for land ares as the smallest since December, 2022, which isn't really a long time in the grand scheme of things 

 However, oceans were still running super hot, which skewed Earth's overall temperature

Even though June was "cool" compared to 2023 and 2024 it was still solidly hot. All ten of the warmest Junes have occurred since 2016 and last moth was the 49th June in a row with above average global temperatures. 

As usual, cool spots - areas that were as cold or a little cooler than the long term average, were few and far between. Those "cool" spots included a small spot in the North Atlantic and a couple little comers of Greenland, India, parts of northern Africa, central Antarctica. 

The hottest spots, relative to average, were in northern and eastern North America, parts of western Europe, sections of eastern Asia and the western Pacific ocean.

Many areas had some intense heat waves during the second half of the month.

On June 28, El Granado Spain reached  114.8 degrees  the hottest temperature on record for  the entire nation of Spain was registered. (The old record was 113.4 degrees in Seville, back in 1965).

From June 19 through the end of month, daily highs in much of France were 95 degrees or better, with several cities setting records for the number of days getting that warm in a single month. 

Seven weather stations around the world with a period of record at least 40 years set new all time record high temperatures. Five were in Russia. The other two were Yongde, China (91 degrees) and Lebanon, New Hampshire (100 degrees). 

Sea ice is also important to look at every month. The more Arctic and Antarctica ice you have, the more that white ice reflects the sun's heat into space, which could help blunt climate change a tiny bit. However, Arctic sea ice was the second lowest of any year since they started keeping track 47 years ago. Antarctic sea ice was the third lowest.

UNITED STATES

The  United States had its seventh hottest 
June on record. Some states in the Northeast
including Vermont, had their hottest June
temperature on record on June 24

June turned out to be the seventh warmest on record for the Lower 48. It's part of a trend, which isn't surprising in the age of climate change. Six of the nation's seven hottest Junes have all occurred since 2015, notes Yale Climate Connections. 

The hottest temperatures in the U.S. relative to average were on the West Coast and the the Mid-Atlantic States and interior Northeast.  Seventeen states had one of their top ten warmest Junes on record. 

Continuing a climate change trend, nights were generally warmer relative to average than daytimes. Connecticut and Rhode Island both had their warmest June average daily minimum temperature on record, and seven other states scored in the top three in that category.

The June warmth in the eastern U.S was skewed by an extreme heat wave on June 23-25, which was especially notable since the biggest heat waves usually don't hit until you're into July and August. 

Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont broke their statewide records for hottest temperature on record for the entire month of June. Maryland and New Hampshire tied their monthly records. 

June in the U.S. was on the wet side, given how it was the start of our Summer of Floods. The Plains, Midwest, western Appalachians, most of the South and much of the southwestern U.S. was wetter than average.  

The West Coast was definitely dry. Florida and most of New England were also sort of on the dry side, but not to an extreme level.  

World Had Second Warmest May as #2 Trend Continues; U.S. Had Second Warmest Spring On Record

For the umpteenth time in recent years, the world saw
red in May, 2025, indicating almost every place was
warmer than the 20th century average. It was the
2nd hottest May on record for the globe. 

Most of the climatologists had said that this year would not quite measure up to the worldwide heat of 2024. 

More data that came in this week indicate that so far, at least, that prediction is coming true, but 2025 is pretty damn close to being the hottest as climate change rages on.

The world had is second warmest May on record, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information. That's been the trend the entire year so far. Most months have been second warmest, behind 2024.

It's pretty much a lock that 2025 will be yet another year that scores among the top five warmest the world has had, at least since reliable records began more than a century and a half ago,  Still, experts give 2025 only a 1 percent chance of being THE hottest on record.

We'd need some pretty off the chains heat for the rest of the year to see that.

May's second hottest ranking is concerning, of course. And of course meteorological spring, running from March 1 through May 31, was the world's second hottest on record.

Averaging out through the world, May's temperature was right around 2 degrees Fahrenheit, (1.1 degrees C) warmer than the 20th century average. 

The ten warmest Mays have all happened since 2014. If you are under the age of 49, you've never seem a global May that was even the slightest bit cooler than the 20th century average. 

In May, the hottest spots relative to average were the Arctic, British Isles, parts of the far northeastern Atlantic Ocean,  areas of the western Indian ocean and southwestern Pacific Ocean. 

As usual, relatively chilly spots were hard to find in May.  The coolest areas, relative to normal, were only near or just a little under the 20th century averages. These semi-cool spots including most of India, part of the northern Atlantic Ocean, Iceland, large sections of Greenland, the southeastern Pacific Ocean, parts of central and eastern Europe and eastern Antarctica.

A strange heat wave hit Iceland and Greenland in May. Temperatures reached as high as 80  degrees in Iceland during the May 15-21 heat wave, which is unprecedented for May and a national record high for the month of May.  So was the 58 degree reading at a weather station in Greenland on May 19.  

The heatwave also got Greenland's summer melt season off to an ominously early start. I don't know if the warm spells will keep hitting Greenland for the rest of the summer, but we should hope not.

Meteorological spring for Earth (March 1 to May 31) was also the second warmest on record, after 2024. 

Meanwhile, as I reported recently record and unprecedented heat waves have been hitting many parts of the world this month. We in Vermont got a nice taste of that Monday and Tuesday, didn't we? It's looking like June will be another top tier hot month around the world, too. 

UNITED STATES

May in the United States was overall the 25th warmest out of the past 131 years on the warm side across much of the United States. 

The West Coast and Southeast were warmest relative to average, Florida had its second warmest May on record. The only state that was fairly substantially on the chilly side was Oklahoma, which had its 36th coldest May out of the past 131 years. 

May was the nation's third wettest on record, powered largely by torrential downpours up and down the East Coast and in the Southeast. 

Alabama had its wettest May on record. Maryland, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont each had their second wettest May. Every state along the East Coast had one of their top 10 wettest Mays on record except Florida and Maine. And those two states were wetter had average.

The only relatively dry states were along the West Coast, and in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Meteorological spring, March 1 through May 31, was the second warmest on record for United States.

 

April Was World's Second Warmest, Continuing This Year's Hot Trend

Another hot month in April. As has been the case
in recent years and will be for the foreseeable 
future, we'll see a continuing trend of
warmer and warmer global temperatures. 
April, 2025 was the world's second warmest on record

Granted, I'm late to the party with this, but the figures are in and to nobody's surprise, the world has its second hottest April on record.

According to the National Centers for Environmental Information:  

"Globally, the April, 2025 temperature was 1.22 degrees C (2.20 degrees F) higher than the 20th century average. This was the second-warmest April in NOAA's 176-year record and only 0.07 degrees C cooler than the record warm April of 2024.  

Notably the ten warmest Aprils on record have all occurred since 2010, with nine occurring since 2016, April 2025 also marked the 49th consecutive April with about average global temperatures,"

As usual, there were plenty of hot spots around the world.  The warmest spots relative to average were much of the Arctic, most of Asia, parts of Antarctica, the southeastern U.S., the British Isles, Indian Ocean, and parts of the Southern Ocean. 

The few cool spots relative to average- and they weren't that cool - were in the oceans north of Scandinavia,  a small patch of ocean south of Greenland, easter Antarctica, southern South America and a few spots in Australia.

Since 2024 was the warmest year on record by far, it's unlikely 2025 will set a new mark. However, NOAA gives this year a 99 percent chance of scoring in the top five warmest. 

UNITED STATES APRIL

The United States had its 13th warmest April on record. 

The United States had its 13th warmest April on 
record. The most warmth, relative to average
was in the southeastern U.S.

All states were warmer than normal except the northern Plains, which were close to normal for the month.  

The warmest part to the country relative to average was the Southeast. Nine states in that region had one of their top ten toastiest Aprils on record. North Carolina and Virginia each had their second warmest April in the 131 years they've been keeping track of this. 

The nation also had its 35th wettest April on record, meaning it was kinda wet but not a blockbuster.

As usual, they're particularly wet and also fairly dry regions. 

The western United States and Florida were dry. Parts of the Midwest were wet. Kentucky had its second wettest April, and Oklahoma had the third wettest April. 

Climate change is of course driving month after month record and near record heat globally,  It doesn't seem to matter if there's a La Nina, El Nino or neither. I virtually guarantee that all future months will at least score in the top five warmest on record.

The world will keep getting warmer so brace yourself, 

Like Every Month Lately, Hot Times Continued For World In March, Which Was 3rd Hottest. U.S. Hot, Too!

As always in this age of climate change, it was
hard to find cool spots on Earth as March came
in as the globe's third hottest on record. 

 As we do every month, we're checking in with the global climate checkup for the previous month, and as always, we endured hot times in March. 

March, 2025 turned out to be the third hottest on record for Earth. 

Thanks in part to the now-definitely fading away La Nina, which cools the Earth a little, we've temporarily stopped having record hot months over and over again. Instead, we're "merely" scoring in the top five, usually top three or two.

This temporary "cooling" if you can call it that, means that at this point 2025 only has a 6 percent chance of besting last year as the world's hottest on record. 

These "nearly hottest" months we've had this year are still obviously bad news since it's a sign that climate change is continuing unfettered, despite influences that would normally cool Earth just a wee bit. 

If you are under the age of 49, you've never seen a March that was close in temperatures to the 20th century average. They've all been warm since 1977.

Unless there's something awful like a major meteor hit or global nuclear war, you'll never again see a month or year that is close to the temperatures we usually saw four or five decades ago. 

The hottest spots on Earth, relative to average, were the Arctic, Alaska, the eastern and central United States, most of Europe, northwest Africa and Australia. 

If you were looking for relative cool spots, they were - as usual - few and far between, but you would have found them in central Canada, eastern Greenland, parts of eastern Asia and chunks of Antarctica.

Those areas weren't really much cooler than what the pre-industrial average was, but were definitely chillier than the average of the past 30 years, which of course had been warmed by climate change. 

As previously reported, Arctic sea ice was at its lowest level on record for March. 

UNITED STATES

The Lower 48 in the U.S. had a decidedly warm March - its sixth warmest on record. 

All states came out definitely on the warm side except California and Florida, which were a little closer to the long term average. . 

Eighteen states had one of their top ten warmest Marches on record in 2025. Vermont as a whole was listed as having had its 13th warmest March on record. However, in Burlington, specifically, the state's main weather station tied for the sixth warmest March.

If you averaged out precipitation through the Lower 48  it comes out fair to middling, ending up close to the long term average. 

Though overall March was near normal for U.S. precipitation, as usual, some spots were extra wet, while others were especially dry.   

Wisconsin and Michigan had among their wettest Marches on record. West Virginia had its fifth driest March on record.

Here in Vermont, we had our 38th wettest March out of the past 131 years, so nothing extreme here. 

Though the United States as a whole wasn't particularly rainy, it was a stormy month. The United States had 296 tornadoes in March, close to if not the most on record for the month. 

Ominous Stat: Arctic Sea Ice Extent Way Under-Performed This Winter And Set A Bad Record

The winter "maximum" sea ice extent in the Arctic was
the lowest on record this year. That's an ominous sign for 
more climate change coming down the pike.

 It's official.

The extent of Arctic sea ice, which normally reaches its peak in March, was pretty pathetic this year. 

It's a sign climate change continues unabated, and it's a factor that could help accelerate the problem. 

First, the immediate issue at hand, per the Washington Post:

 "Just 5.53 million square miles of ice had formed as of March 22 this year - the smallest maximum extent in the 47-year satellite record, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Since then the ice has already begun to melt again."

WaPo goes on:

"The record comes age a grim time for ice in all corners of the globe. In Antarctica, which has historically been more isolated from the effects of human-causing warming, sea ice shrank this month to the second lowest extent on record.  Research published in the journal Nature in February found that Earth's glaciers are dwindling at an accelerating rate,"

Back up there in the Arctic, this year's maximum ice extent was 31,000 square miles smaller than the previous record. That 31,000 square miles is about the same size as South Carolina. 

The Arctic is warming much faster than the rest of the globe. This winter was a classic example. Some areas of the far north were as much as 22 degrees Fahrenheit above average, which helps explain why Arctic ice didn't freeze as it should have

When there's less sea ice, the Arctic can warm even faster. More ice means when the sun shines on those gleaming white surfaces, bouncing the sun's heat back up into space.

When there's blue open water instead of ice up there in the Arctic, the sun's warmth is absorbed by that water Or as WaPo explains:

"With so little sea ice in the Arctic this year, more sunlight will be able to reach the open ocean, which absorbs more than 90 percent of the radiation that hits it. This will further warm the region, accelerating ice melt and exposing even more water to the light."

That's known as a feedback loop. Arctic ice melts because of climate change. That allows more heat to come in, melting even more ice and accelerating climate change even more. 

As I always like to say, what goes on the Arctic doesn't stay in the Arctic.  

Sure, the lack of ice makes the Arctic melt even faster, but the warming effect does to an extent spread all over the world. It would just make our recent spate of record and near record hot years just keep going and going, like some torrid, evil Energizer Bunny.  

A lack of ice in the Arctic won't in itself make sea levels rise. As you've probably heard me say before. If the ice cubes in your glass of gin and tonic melt, it won't make the glass overflow. But the Arctic heat that might last through the summer can bleed on over to the Greenland ice cap, which is above sea level. The more that ice cap melts, the higher sea levels go. 

World Surprisingly Had Its Hottest January On Record This Year

Red hot world again. January was the warmest on record for
the Earth as a whole, with very few places on the
chilly side and many at record heat. 

Scientists got a surprise from the latest snapshot of global temperatures. It turns out January was unexpectedly the warmest on record for the world as a whole. 

Sure, the continental United States was chilly, as I reported in an earlier post on Monday,  but that was very much the exception

The National Centers for Environmental Information, or NCEI states: 

"The new January global record is particularly notable for having occurred during a La Nina episode, the cold phase El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Global temperatures tend to be cooler during periods of La Nina in comparison to periods with an El Nino present."

Not this time. 

 The three previous world record warm Januaries all occurred during the opposite El Nino, which tends to boost global temperatures. 

As always the NCEI data was sound, as other scientific organizations agreed with the assessment. The European Copernicus Climate Change Service, and Berkeley Earth both measured the Earth as having its hottest January on record. 

Almost the whole world was warm, with the hottest places relative to average in the Arctic, Alaska, northwestern and northeastern Canada, most of central and eastern Europe, southern South America and western Australia. 

The few cold spots were quite a bit chillier than you'd expect. Those rather small cold places were the as-mentioned central and southeastern United States, a good chunk of Greenland, far eastern Russia and a weird, very small area of southern Africa. 

NCEI still says there's only a 7 percent chance that 2025 will be the hottest year on record. 

The warm trend has been happening for long time, but is now accelerating. If you are under the age of 49, you've never seen a global January that was cooler than the 20th century average. 

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?

 It's true that this warm January occurred during an El Nino, but it is a weak one, so it might not be having as much an effect on the world's temperature as a stronger one would. 

But I wonder if that fully explains why January was so warm. Snow cover was well below normal in the northern hemisphere. Snow reflect heat back to space, so if there's less snow, the Earth has an opportunity to warm up a little more than it otherwise would. 

But that still might not explain everything. 

One compelling explanation is clouds. Or more precisely, a lack thereof. 

Cloud cover on Earth was below normal in January, and in fact, clouds have been lacking for the past two years. Those two years have shown an alarming acceleration in the how fast the world is warming up. 

High, thin clouds tend to have an overall warming effect on the world. Low stratus or billowy cumulus clouds tend to cool us off a bit. It's those low clouds that have been lacking, explains the Washington Post. 

From above, these low clouds are shimmering white, which reflects the sun's heat back up into space much like that snow cover does. 

The next question is why there are fewer clouds. WaPo explains:

"Researchers are still unsure exactly what accounts for this decrease. Some believe the it could be due to less air pollution: When particulates are in the air, it can make it easier for water droplets to stick to them and form clouds.

Another possibility (Helge) Goesling said, is a feedback loop from warming temperatures. Clouds require moisture to form and moist stratocumulus clouds sit just underneath a dry layer of air about one mile high. If temperatures warm, hot air from below can disturb that dry layer, mixing with it and making it harder for wet clouds to form."

Goessling is a climate physicist at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany and is the author of one of the studies that looked at why the Earth was reflecting less heat back to space.  

Feedback loops are dangerous because they feed off each other.  If the cloud theories are correct, fewer low clouds will accelerate global heating. That accelerating heat destroys even more low clouds, which begets even more heat and so on and so on. 

Despite the temporarily chill we've been feeling here in Vermont this year, the unexpected global heat in January, plus these new studies, suggest we have more record-shattering heat in our not so distant future. 

Not just here in Vermont but throughout the entire world. 

Think it's been hot in recent years? You ain't seen nothin' yet. 

 

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. 

It Goes On And On; Global, U.S. October Continues Climate Change Meltdown

 As we do every month, we check out the data NOAA provides to find out how the U.S. and the world did with their weather and climate the previous month. 

Another very red global monthly climate map as
October was the world's second warmest on record.

For years now, these monthly reports have been almost exclusively bad news regarding climate change. 

Why break from tradition now? The news for October was crappy, too! 

THE WORLD

October turned out to be the world's second warmest on record, just a tiny smidge cooler than October 2023.

You might remember that this September ended 15 months of consecutive warmest months, as September was only second warmest. We're doing the same in October.

Sort of. Land areas had their warmest October on record. But oceans only had their second warmest October, so that dragged the entire world's average for the month down to second warmest. 

This tiny "cooling trend" if you want to call it that, was expected. An El Nino - which boosts global temperatures beyond even what climate change can do -- ended a few months ago. So I guess we've stopped breaking some records. At least for now. 

As has been the case for a long time now, it was hard to find notable cool spots in the world in October.

An area in and near the southern tip of South American was sort of cool. Along with a corner of Antarctica.  And a little area in the North Atlantic between southeastern Greenland and Iceland. 

Even that chillyish spot near Iceland is bad news.  It's another symptom of melt water from the ice caps of Greenland and elsewhere in the Arctic flowing into the North Atlantic. This is decreasing salinity in the region's water.

That has scientists worried the melt and changes will make a large, crucial Atlantic current system to collapse, causing abrupt  climate changes in Europe and elsewhere many orders of magnitude worse than anything we've seen since humans have been around. 

In October, most of the Arctic, the southwestern U.S., northern Mexico, parts of India and Pakistan, and a few pockets of Africa and South America had a record warm October.

 Other parts of the world that were way, way warmer than the 20th century average include most of South America, the  central and northeastern United States, sections of North Africa, huge swaths of Europe, the southern half of Asia, most of Australia and western Antarctica. 

I write pretty much the following sentence virtually every month, but I vaguely remember when I used the number 35 in it. But here goes: If you are younger than 48 years old, you've never seen a global October that was cooler than the 20th century average. 

The year to date (January-October) is the world's warmest on record by a wide margin. Basically, unless a big asteroid hits Earth any minute now, 2024 will be world's hottest on record. 

UNITED STATES

Just as you probably thought, October was super warm and dry in the Lower 48 of the United States. Officially, it was second warmest on record and tied for second driest. 

Almost all counties in Lower 48 were warmer than average
in October (orange and red shadings) Only a handful
were near average (in white). Even in warmer than
normal months, a few areas of the nation are cooler
than average. Not in October, 2024!

Pretty much everybody was warm in the United States in October, but as usual, some areas were toastier than others. Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Utah had their warmest October in at least 130 years. 

California, Colorado, Montana and Wyoming had their second warmest October. Ten other states were also in the top 10 ranking for hottest October. 

New Jersey and Delaware had their driest October on record. 

The first ten months of 2024 are the Lower 48's second warmest on record. Maine, Michigan, New Mexico, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin are all  had their warmest year to date through October. 

To nobody's surprise, November nationally and globally has been running hot so far. I'm sure we'll have a similar post in November telling everyone how hot and sweaty the month is.

These monthly climate posts on the state of the global and United States climate might seem tedious broken record type things,

But they serve an important purpose. It drives home the fact that climate change is roaring on, it's not abating and the effects are worsening. No matter who puts their head in the sand over this issue, the world needs to face reality.

I'm waiting to see if we step up to the plate or not.