Global Highlights
Supplemental InformationIntroductionTemperature anomalies and percentiles are shown on the gridded maps below. The anomaly map on the left is a product of a merged land surface temperature (Global Historical Climatology Network, GHCN) and sea surface temperature (ERSST.v3b) anomaly analysis developed by Smith et al. (2008). Temperature anomalies for land and ocean are analyzed separately and then merged to form the global analysis. For more information, please visit NCDC's Global Surface Temperature Anomalies page. The percentile maps on the right provide additional information by placing the temperature anomaly observed for a specific place and time period into historical perspective, showing how the most current month, season or year compares with the past. The most current data may be accessed via the Global Surface Temperature Anomalies page. TemperaturesIn the atmosphere, 500-millibar height pressure anomalies correlate well with temperatures at the Earth's surface. The average position of the upper-level ridges of high pressure and troughs of low pressure—depicted by positive and negative 500-millibar height anomalies on the June 2014 map—is generally reflected by areas of positive and negative temperature anomalies at the surface, respectively. JuneThe combined average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces for June 2014 was record high for the month, at 0.72°C (1.30°F) above the 20th century average. This surpasses the previous record, set in June 1998, by 0.03°C (0.05°F). Nine of the ten warmest Junes on record have occurred during the 21st century, including each of the past five years. June 2014 also marks the second consecutive month with record high global temperatures. With the exception of February (21st warmest), every month to date in 2014 has ranked among the four warmest for its respective month. Additionally, June 2014 marked the 38th consecutive June and 352nd consecutive month with a global temperature above the 20th century average. The last below-average global temperature for June was June 1976 and the last below-average global temperature for any month was February 1985. The June global land temperature was the seventh highest for June on record at 0.95°C (1.71°F) above the 20th century average of 13.3°C (55.9°F). The seven warmest June global land surface temperatures have all occurred within the past decade. The warmth was fairly evenly distributed between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, with the Northern Hemisphere land-surface temperature sixth highest on record and the Southern Hemisphere land-surface temperature fifth highest. As indicated by the Land & Ocean Percentiles Map above, record warmth was present across part of southern Greenland, parts of northern South America, areas in eastern and central Africa, and sections of southern and southeastern Asia. A few areas in North America, Far East Russia, and small parts of central and eastern Europe were cooler or much cooler than average. Select national information is highlighted below. (Please note that different countries report anomalies with respect to different base periods. The information provided here is based directly upon these data):
For the ocean, the June global sea surface temperature was record warm, at 0.64°C (1.15°F) above the 20th century average of 16.4°C (61.5°F). This marks the first time that the monthly global ocean temperature anomaly was higher than 0.60°C (1.08°F) and surpasses the previous all-time record for any month by 0.05°C (0.09°F); the previous record of +0.59°C (1.06°F) was first set in June 1998 and tied in October 2003, July 2009, and just last month in May 2014. Similar to May, scattered sections across every major ocean basin were record warm. Notably, large parts of the western equatorial and northeastern Pacific Ocean and nearly all of the Indian Ocean were record warm or much warmer than average for the month. Although neither El Niño nor La Niña conditions were present across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean during June 2014, the ocean waters in that region continued to trend above average. NOAA's Climate Prediction Center estimates that there is about a 70 percent chance that El Niño conditions will develop during Northern Hemisphere summer 2014 and 80 percent chance it will develop during the fall and winter.
The most current data may be accessed via the Global Surface Temperature Anomalies page. Year-to-date (January–June)The first half of 2014 (January–June) tied with 2002 as the third warmest such period on record across the world's land and ocean surfaces, at 0.67°C (1.21°F) above the 20th century average. The average global sea surface temperature was the third highest for January–June in the 135-year period of record, behind 1998 (highest) and 2010 (second highest), while the average land surface temperature tied with 1998 and 2005 as the fourth highest. Record warmth was observed over areas that included part of the western United States, a large swath of eastern Australia, much of the northeastern and western equatorial Pacific, sections of the eastern North Atlantic and eastern South Atlantic, and parts of the Greenland, Norwegian, and Barents Seas. Parts of eastern North America and the Southern Ocean off the tip of South America were much cooler than average, with a small region of each observing record cold for the six-month period. Select national information is highlighted below. (Please note that different countries report anomalies with respect to different base periods. The information provided here is based directly upon these data):
The most current data may be accessed via the Global Surface Temperature Anomalies page. PrecipitationJuneThe maps below represent precipitation percent of normal (left) and precipitation percentiles (right) based on the GHCN dataset of land surface stations using a base period of 1961–1990. As is typical, precipitation anomalies during June 2014 varied significantly around the world, with many areas seeing either much below-average or much above-average precipitation. Extreme wetness was observed during June over regions that included central North America and parts of eastern and northern Europe. Extreme dryness was scattered across different parts of the globe, including much of South Asia and Australia. Some national precipitation information is highlighted below
ReferencesPeterson, T.C. and R.S. Vose, 1997: An Overview of the Global Historical Climatology Network Database. Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc., 78, 2837-2849. Quayle, R.G., T.C. Peterson, A.N. Basist, and C. S. Godfrey, 1999: An operational near-real-time global temperature index. Geophys. Res. Lett., 26, 333-335. Smith, T.M. and R.W. Reynolds, 2005: A global merged land air and sea surface temperature reconstruction based on historical observations (1880-1997), J. Clim., 18, 2021-2036. Smith et al., 2008, Improvements to NOAA's Historical Merged Land-Ocean Surface Temperature Analysis (1880-2006), J. Climate., 21, 2283-2293. Citing This ReportNOAA National Climatic Data Center, State of the Climate: Global Analysis for June 2014, published online July 2014, retrieved on July 29, 2014 from http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/2014/6. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
