Global Hot Streak Continues: September Was Fourth Hottest

September, 2017 was the fourth warmest on record
for the Earth as a whole

It wasn't just us Vermonters who sweated their way through one of the hottest Septembers on record.

For the globe as a whole, September, 2017 was the fourth warmest on record, says NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information. The only warmer Septembers were all very recent: 2014, 2015 and 2016.

That echoes what happened locally here in Vermont. The hottest Septembers on record in Burlington were 2015, 2016 and 2017.

Climatologists had expected 2017 to cool off slightly from the record global warmth of 2015 and 2016. So far it appears 2017 did cool, but barely. It's hardly noticeable. We're still on track for 2017 to be either the second or third warmest year on record for the Earth as a whole.

To me and many others, this is part of mounting evidence that global warming continues unabated, as if we needed more proof.

By the way, NOAA says this was the 24th consecutive September and 283rd consecutive month that Earth's land temperatures were about the 20th century average.

Also, there were two weather disasters in September that each caused at least a billion dollars in damage, says Dr. Jeff Masters in the Category 6 blog. Those disasters were Hurricanes Irma and Harvey. That makes 21 billion dollar disasters so far this year, which is about average for this point in the year.

Since then, Hurricane Maria and the recent northern California wildfires have happened and those are likely to also be disasters each costing more than a billion dollars.