Our global temperature continued its upward trend last month. November 2017 tied November 2016 as the fifth warmest November on record and closed out the planet’s fourth warmest September to November period, which is known as meteorological autumn in the northern hemisphere.
According to the State of the Climate report by NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Earth’s combined average temperature for November – over both land and sea surfaces – was 56.55°F, which is 1.35°F above the 20th-century average. November also marked the 395th consecutive month with a global temperature above its long-term norm. That means the last time any month posted a below average reading was December 1984.
The three-month period of September, October, and November was also unusually warm. NOAA reports that Earth’s average temperature for the season was 1.35°F above the 20th century average of 57.1°F. That makes it the fourth warmest such period on record.
While heat dominated most of the planet this season, some places were particularly warm, including parts of southern North America and southern Asia. For the contiguous US as a whole, it was our tenth warmest autumn on record.
These soaring temperatures are largely attributed to the long-term trend of human-caused climate change. In fact, a weak La Niña – the cool counterpart of El Niño – developed in the tropical Pacific during October and prevailed in November.
Year to date, the first eleven months of 2017 were the third warmest such period of any year on record. With only one month left, 2017 is expected to end up among the top three warmest years ever recorded on this planet and become the warmest year without an El Niño. Global temperature records date back to 1880.
Credit: NOAA/NCEI