Summit County Citizens Voice

Northwestern U.S. and Australia were the only significant land areas with cooler than average temperatures during the month

April 2011 was the sixth-warmest on record.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — April was another warm month for Planet Earth, with the combined land and ocean average surface temperature running 1.06 degrees above the 20th century average — the sixth-warmest April on record and the 35th consecutive April with above-average readings.

Both land and sea surface temperatures were above average, with the warmest readings in the northern hemisphere, and for for the year-to-date, the global combined land and ocean surface temperature of 55.66 degrees was the 14th-warmest January–April period on record, .86 degrees
above the 20th century average.

Here’s the summary from the National Climatic Data Center:

“April 2011 was characterized by warm conditions across much of the world, particularly across land areas. The warmest anomalies occurred over most of the southern United States and northern Mexico, much of central South America, Europe, northwestern Africa, and most of Russia. Cooler-than-average conditions prevailed across most of Alaska, western Canada, the northwestern United States, southwestern Greenland, and most of Australia. The worldwide land temperatures for April 2011 ranked as the sixth warmest on record, 1.12°C (2.02°F) above the 20th century average.”

Most of the world’s ocean-surface temperatures were above average, with the only cool readings reported from parts of the eastern and central Pacific Ocean, the western tropical Pacific and the South China sea.

Record warmth was reported from parts of Europe, and especially across the UK, were readings averaged 5 to 9 degrees above average for the entire month, making it the warmest April on record.

Germany reported its second-warmest April since record-keeping began in 1881, with an average temperature that was 7.9 degrees above average. Only April 2009 was warmer.

The southern hemisphere ocean temperature during April tied with 2000 as the 10-warmest on record, while southern hemisphere land temperatures were the 25th-warmest on record.

One notable cool spot was Australia, where maximum daily temperatures stayed about 1.2 degrees below average, and the daily minimum temperatures were 1.73 degrees below average — the 10th-lowest on record.

The year-to-date global summary from the NCDC:

“The January–April 2011 map of temperature anomalies shows that, for the first four months of the year, anomalous warm temperatures were present over much of the world, with the exception of cooler-than-average conditions across central Canada, the northern United States, western Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, extreme southeast Asia, and most of Australia. The combined global land and ocean surface temperature for the January–April period was the 14th warmest such period on record. This value is 0.48°C (0.86°F) above the 20th century average. Separately, the worldwide land surface temperature ranked as the 17th warmest on record, while the worldwide ocean surface temperature ranked as the 11th warmest January–April on record.”

Information compiled from the NOAA National Climatic Data Center, State of the Climate: Global Analysis for April 2011, published online May 2011, retrieved on May 16, 2011 from http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/2011/4.

Filed under: climate and weather, Colorado, El Niño, Environment, global warming, La Niña, seasons, Summit County Colorado Tagged: | climate, global warming, Instrumental temperature record, National Climatic Data Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Pacific Ocean, Summit County Colorado, Summit County News, United States