The latest monthly summary from the National Centers for Environmental Information also reported that the year-to-date temperature was the eighth warmest in the 126-year record.
July temperatures are favored to be in the warmest third of the recent climate record for much of the U.S. In the drought-stricken Southwest, the odds of well below average precipitation are higher than the odds of an average or wetter-than-average July.
May 2020 tied with May 2016 as the warmest May on record for the globe, continuing 2020’s streak of having every single month either be the warmest or second-warmest month on record
While May 2020 precipitation deficits drew parts of the West deeper into drought, parts of the Upper Midwest, Ohio Valley, and the Southeast got soaked.
The most recent minimum (February 2020) and maximum (September 2019) sea ice extents in the Antarctic were below average, but not record lows. Antarctic sea ice has greater year-to-year variability than the Arctic, and little evidence of long-term change.
Cool conditions in Alaska and northern Canada related to a strong polar vortex were not enough to outweigh the extreme warmth across Europe and Asia in February 2020. Both the Northern Hemisphere and the globe as a whole had their second-warmest February on record.
Based on historical climate data from thousands of stations across the United States, these maps show the warmest and coldest daytime high temperatures ever recorded at a given location on March 19—the astronomical first day of spring.
Human activities, mainly burning fossil fuels, are increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, amplifying the natural greenhouse effect and making the pH of the ocean more acidic.
