June breaks heat record
2010-07-16 11:30
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Climate Change
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Washington - Last month was the hottest June ever recorded on Earth, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Thursday, amid global climate warming worries.
The combined global land and ocean surface temperature data also found the January-June and April-June periods were the warmest on record, according to NOAA's National Climatic Data Centre, which based its findings on measurements that go back as far as 1880.
In June, the combined average for global land and ocean temperatures was 16.2°C - 0.68°C more than the 20th century average of 15.5°C.
Temperatures warmer than average spread throughout the globe in recent months, most prominently in Peru, in the central and eastern US and in eastern and western Asia, according to NOAA.
In contrast, cooler-than-average conditions affected Scandinavia, southern China and the US northwest.
Ocean temperatures
The Beijing Climate Centre found that Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang and Jilin experienced their warmest June since records began in 1951, while Guizhou saw its coolest June ever.
Spain's nationwide temperatures made June the coolest in 13 years, according to its meteorological surface.
Global ocean surface temperatures averaged 0.54°C above last century's average of 16.4°C - the fourth warmest June since records began. The Atlantic Ocean saw the most pronounced warmth, NOAA said.
The average land surface temperature that month was 1.07°C more than the 20th century average of 13.3°C - the warmest ever.
Meanwhile, sea surface temperatures were declining throughout the equatorial Pacific Ocean, in line with the end of El Niño, a climate pattern that lasts an average of five years during which unusually warm sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean move east.
NOAA's Climate Prediction Centre forecast that La Niña conditions, where ocean waters in the east-central equatorial Pacific are unusually cool, would likely develop during the northern hemisphere summer this year.