December 10, 2001—October 2001 was the warmest October on record globally, scientists at the NOAA’s National Climate Data Center in Asheville, N.C., reported recently. Scientists from the Commerce Department s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration calculated last month’s climate conditions using the world’s largest weather database.
The preliminary globally averaged temperature was 58.2 degrees Fahrenheit (14.6 C). This was 1.0 F (0.6 C) above the 1880-2000 long-term mean, the warmest October on record. October global temperatures have been above average 23 of the past 25 years.
The year-to-date global temperature was 0.9 F (0.5 C) above average, the second warmest January-October period since global surface temperature records began in 1880. Global temperatures have risen over the past 100 years by 1.0 F (0.6 C). The rise in temperature has been more rapid during the past 25 years, a rate approximately three times greater than the century-scale trend.
Monthly temperatures were above average across much of Europe and northern portions of Africa as well as across eastern Asia, with monthly departures of more than 7 F (3.9 C) above the long-term mean in Algeria. Temperatures in the United States for October ranked 38th highest in the U.S. 1895-to-present record. The preliminary nationally averaged temperature for the forty-eight contiguous states was 55.4 F (13.0 C) or 0.7 F (0.4 C) above the long-term mean. Regionally, temperatures were above average in the Northeast and Southwest, and lower than average across the South, Southeast and Alaska.
For more national and global data for October, contact the Climate Services Division of the National Climatic Data Center.
