{"id":5977,"date":"2014-06-25T12:42:57","date_gmt":"2014-06-25T12:42:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=5977"},"modified":"2014-06-25T12:47:47","modified_gmt":"2014-06-25T12:47:47","slug":"2014-is-shaping-up-to-be-the-hottest-year-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=5977","title":{"rendered":"2014 is shaping up to be the HOTTEST year on record!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Planet Just Had Its Warmest May On Record<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/a>BY\u00a0<\/a><\/span>RYAN KORONOWSKI \u00a0\u00a0|\u00a0Climate Progress<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n
\"AA map showing the blended land and sea surface temperature percentiles in May 2014. Hot spots in red over both land and ocean. (CREDIT: NOAA)<\/div>\n

Last month broke a temperature record, averaging 59.93 degrees Fahrenheit \u2014 a degree and a third (1.33\u00b0F) above the 20th century baseline, according to\u00a0new data<\/a>\u00a0released Monday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. May 2014 was the 39th consecutive May that was warmer than average. This was also the 351st consecutive month where the global temperature was hotter than the 20th century average, meaning if you are 29 years old, you have never experienced a colder-than-average month in your life.<\/p>\n

Since New Year\u2019s Day, even as the U.S. shivered through the polar vortex, the planet as a whole experienced its fifth-warmest January-through-May on record \u2014 1.19\u00b0F above the 20th century average. The last \u201chottest May\u201d record was set in 2010. 2012 was the third-warmest, 1998 the fourth, and 2013 the fifth-warmest on record.<\/p>\n

Where was it the warmest? Mostly over the oceans. The planet\u2019s seas broke the high temperature record last set in the El Ni\u00f1o year of 1998 \u2014 coming in for a 1.06\u00b0F global monthly-averaged sea surface temperature.<\/p>\n

The ocean temperature rise is important, as a study last year suggested that\u00a030 to 40 percent<\/a>\u00a0of the heat trapped over the last decade or so has moved into the deep ocean. As those depths warm up, it gets harder for that deep warmth to be concealed \u2014 and now measurements are showing the surface water is warmer than ever.<\/p>\n

The land in the Southern Hemisphere was also warmer than it\u2019s ever been measured, at 0.31\u00b0F above average. South Australia broke last year\u2019s record high temperature for May at 4.81\u00b0F above average. South Korea had its hottest May on record, and Alaska posted its 6th-hottest.<\/p>\n

This data confirms the\u00a0analysis<\/a>\u00a0of the Japan Meteorological Agency, while\u00a0initial analysis<\/a>from NASA found the same, pending additional data from China.<\/p>\n

The United Kingdom had its third-warmest spring, Denmark tied for its second-warmest, South Korea had its second-warmest, while Latvia and Norway had their warmest springs on record. Though America\u2019s Midwest saw record cold, NOAA said the planet experienced record warmth in:<\/p>\n

\u2026the western North and South Atlantic Ocean, sections of the northeastern and equatorial Pacific, areas of the Norwegian and Barents Seas, the ocean waters south of Africa, far western Alaska and parts of Far East Russia, part of the western United States, southern Mexico, and central to eastern Australia.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, some\u00a0politicians<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0coal CEOs<\/a>\u00a0have<\/a>continued<\/a>\u00a0to argue that the earth has been cooling for 17 years. However, it\u2019s easy to see the historical warming trend in NOAA\u2019s graph of surface temperature anomalies:<\/p>\n

\"TheThe reality of the inexorable warming trend facing the human race doesn\u2019t get much clearer than what you see in this graph.CREDIT: NOAA<\/div>\n

Not only was the month of May the warmest ever measured across the face of the globe, but some areas faced extremes in precipitation. Parts of Austria and Norway received record amounts of rainfall, while the northern and eastern areas of South America and Australia suffered extreme dryness.<\/p>\n

2014 is not yet an El Nino year, but scientists have been looking at Pacific Ocean currents and are\u00a0predicting<\/a>\u00a0one to start by the end of the year, which would make it\u00a0even more likely<\/a>that 2014 will be the hottest year ever recorded.<\/p>\n

Recommended Reading:<\/p>\n

We Just Experienced the Hottest May on Record<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Planet Just Had Its Warmest May On Record BY\u00a0RYAN KORONOWSKI \u00a0\u00a0|\u00a0Climate Progress A map showing the blended land and sea surface temperature percentiles in May 2014. Hot spots in red over both land and ocean. (CREDIT: NOAA) Last month … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5977\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}