Our global temperature continued its upward trend last month with April 2018 marking the third warmest April ever recorded on this planet. Only April 2016 and 2017 were warmer.

According to a report by NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Earth’s combined average temperature for the month – over both land and sea surfaces – was 58.19°F. That is 1.49°F above the 20th-century average. April was also the 400th 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.

While heat dominated most of the planet this April, some places were particularly warm, including Central Europe, eastern Russia, and parts of both South America and Australia. These soaring global temperatures are largely attributed to the long-term trend of human-caused climate change. In fact, ENSO neutral conditions were present in the Pacific during April, meaning neither El Niño nor La Niña influenced temperatures.

For many people in the US, however, especially in the eastern part of the county, this April was relatively cold. For the lower 48 states as a whole, it was the 13th coldest April on record. To put this disparity into context, consider that the contiguous United States constitutes less than 2% of the total surface of the Earth. This detail highlights the fact that climate change is a complex global phenomenon that involves much more than the short-term weather that is happening in our own backyards.

Year to date, the first four months of 2018 were the fifth warmest such period of any year on record. Global temperature records date back to 1880.

Credit: NOAA