Orlando, FLA. – The heat wave across the globe this year is one for the record books. With one month left of 2020, we are on track to being one of the hottest years on record globally.
November marks the 11th month, where monthly records were broken worldwide.
2020 Recap of the monthly broken records
- January 2020: +2.05° (Hottest Ever)
- February 2020: +2.11° (Second Hottest)
- March 2020: +2.09° (Second Hottest)
- April 2020: +1.91° (Second Hottest)
- May 2020: +1.71° (Hottest Ever)
- June 2020: +1.66° (Third Hottest)
- July 2020: +2.11° (Second Hottest)
- August 2020: +2.14° (Hottest Ever)
- September 2020: +1.75° (Hottest Ever)
- October 2020: +1.53° (Fourth Hottest)
- November 2020: +1.75° (Second Hottest)
The stretch between January and November, is holding steady at second place as the hottest ever on record. The global temperature, which includes over land and ocean, warmed to 1.8 degrees above the average, making it the second-warmest year to date in the 141-year record.
But 2020 isn’t far behind first place. Currently 2016 remains the record holder, by only 0.02 degrees.
As of now, 2020 is likely to remain warm enough to rank among the three-warmest years on record.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, this exceptional warmth has also caused the Arctic sea ice coverage to melt to its second lowest November coverage on record, following 2016. Last month, the ice coverage was 16% below the 1981-2010 average.
This November marked the 21st consecutive November with below-average Arctic sea ice extent according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.