Hot Times On Earth: August Was Hottest On Record

Lots of red on this map, depicting
the hottest August on record in 2014,
say climate scientists.  

The National Climate Data Center came out with their monthly report this morning on the world's climate and they gave us more of what they've been saying all year.  

It's wicked hot on Earth. The year 2014 had the hottest August on record for the globe as a whole, if you combine ocean and land based temperatures 

Ocean temperatures were the hottest on record in August for any month on record, says the report.

If you ignore the oceans and just take temperature readings on land, it was "only" the second hottest August recorded, says the Climate Data Center.

This report, along with NASA's report earlier this week in which they also concluded August was the hottest on record on Earth, will add fuel, so to speak, for the big People's Climate March in New York this weekend. 

I keep hearing from climate change deniers that global warming stopped in the late 1990s, but I'm not seeing that. True, the rate at which temperatures have been rising slowed, but hasn't stopped.  Also, ocean temperatures have been increasingly rapidly in recent years.

And I'm beginning to wonder if this year marks the start of an acceleration in global atmospheric temperatures.  Most months this year have been the warmest on record, or in the Top 10 list of warmest months.

So far, 2014 is the third hottest year on record, says the Climate Data Center. We'll see what the rest of the year brings.

Looking at the details, the eastern United States has continued the trend it's experienced all year: While the world heats up, that region stays cool. Also, northwestern Siberia and part of Australia were a little cool in August.  Most of the rest of the world was hot, hot, hot.

Yes, we're going to get an early frost tonight where I live in Vermont, but I have to wonder, among many other things, how very late in the fall or early winter first frosts will come in the future.