One indication of how out of whack the weather is in New Zealand this winter is that my horse, Biscuit (who would normally, by now be looking like a woolly mammoth), has not yet developed a full winter coat. We keep him uncovered throughout - so he reflects the weather quite well
We
Just Experienced the Hottest May on Record
The
average land and ocean surface temperature for May was the highest
ever. And 2014 is shaping up to potentially be the hottest year yet.
24
June, 2014
Last
month was the hottest May globally since records began in 1880, new
figures show.
The
record heat, combined
with increasingly certain predictions of an El Niño,
means experts are now speculating whether 2014 could become the
hottest year on record.
Data
published by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
on Monday showed
the average land and ocean surface temperature last month was 0.74C
above the 20th century average of 14.8C, making it the highest on
record.
Previously,
the warmest May was 2010, followed by 2012, 1998 and 2013.
Worldwide,
March-May was the second warmest ever by NOAA's records—2010 holds
the record for that period. April 2014 was also the hottest April
ever by NOAA's records.
There
are two other main global temperature records in addition to NOAA's,
one kept by NASA and the other by the Met Office's Hadley Centre in
the UK. The three are combined by the UN's World Meteorological
Organization, which ranks 2010 as the warmest on record, and says
that 13 of the 14 warmest years on record occurred in the 21st
century.
Some forecasters
are now predicting a 90 percent chance of El Niño—the
weather phenomenon that can cause drought in Asia and Australia and
lead to higher temperatures—happening this year, opening the
possibility that 2014 will be the hottest year yet.
Kevin
Trenberth, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric
Research in Boulder, Colo., told
the Guardian's
environment network partner, ClimateCentral:
"I agree that 2014 could well be the warmest on record, and/or
2015, depending on how things play out."
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