The Earth’s average air temperature for June broke records as the hottest ever recorded, following another record-setting month in May, the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday.
The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for June 2014 was 0.72 degrees Celsius (1.30 degrees Farenheit) above the 20th century average of 15.5 C or 59.9 F.
Urgent: Do You Approve Or Disapprove of President Obama's Job Performance? Vote Now in Urgent Poll
The global land temperature alone was .95 C and 1.71 F above the 20th century average of 13.3 C and 55.9 F, which was the seventh highest on record for the month.
The record temperatures were the result of unusually hot oceans,
NOAA climate monitoring chief Derek Arndt told The Associated Press.
Record highs were hit on just about every continent except Antarctica. New Zealand, Greenland, central Africa, and southern Asia all recorded especially high temperatures. In the United States, June this year was the 33rd hottest on record, the AP said.
Jessica Blunden, a climate scientist with NOAA's National Climatic Data Center,
told USA Today that El Nino, which involves the warming of Pacific Ocean water, was a primary factor in June’s heat, along with the higher than average ocean temperatures cited by Arndt.
A few areas did see cooler than usual temperatures, including a few places in North America, eastern Russia, and some areas in Europe, USA Today said.
"Since the beginning of 2014, every month except February has been among the four warmest," Blunden told USA Today.
The warming temps could set the entire year on the path of record numbers, a climate scientists tweeted:
Urgent: Assess Your Heart Attack Risk in Minutes. Click Here.
Related Stories: