June joins May as hottest on record as experts warn 'this is what global warming looks like'
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The Earth is on a hot streak after setting a global heat record in June - just months after breaking the same record in May.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that last month's average global temperature was 61.2 degrees, which is 1.3 degrees higher than the 20th century average.
It beat 2010's old record by one-twentieth of a degree.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that last month's average global temperature was 61.2 degrees, which is 1.3 degrees higher than the 20th century average.
WHAT IS EL NINO
El Niño refers to a set of conditions when the surface of the sea in an area along the Equator in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean becomes hotter than usual.
The average water temperature in that area is typically between 1 and 3°C (approximately 2 and 5°F) warmer than normal during this event.
This has the effect of adding huge amounts of heat and moisture into the atmosphere, ultimately affecting patterns of air pressure and rainfall across the Pacific and globally.
Strong El Niño events occur every 20 years or so, but researchers recently said this could drop to 10 years thanks to global warming.
At the opposite end of the scale, La Niña is the climatological counterpart to El Niño.
La Niña refers to periods when sea-surface temperatures around the Equator are cooler than normal.
This has a similar affect on air pressure and rainfall because it suppresses how much heat and moisture enters the atmosphere.
While one-twentieth of a degree doesn't sound like much, in temperature records it's like winning a horse race by several lengths, said NOAA climate monitoring chief Derek Arndt.
The world's oceans not only broke a monthly heat record at 62.7 degrees, but it was the hottest the oceans have been on record no matter what the month, Arndt said.
'We are living in the steroid era of the climate system,' Arndt said.
Arndt said both the June and May records were driven by unusually hot oceans, especially the Pacific and Indian oceans.
Heat records in June broke on every continent but Antarctica, especially in New Zealand, northern South America, Greenland, central Africa and southern Asia.
The United States had only its 33rd hottest June.
All 12 of the world's monthly heat records have been set after 1997, more than half in the last decade.
All the global cold monthly records were set before 1917.
June's key incidents around the world
And with a likely El Nino this year - the warming of the tropical Pacific which influences the world's weather and increases global temperatures - it is starting to look like another extra warm year, said University of Arizona climate scientist Jonathan Overpeck.
The first six months of the year are the third warmest first six months on record, coming behind 2010 and 1998, according to NOAA.
Global temperature records go back to 1880 and this is the 352nd hotter than average month in a row.
"This is what global warming looks like," Overpeck said in an email. "Not record hot everywhere all the time, but certainly a reflection that the odds of record hot are going up everywhere around the planet."
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