Global Analysis - December 2013Global Highlights
IntroductionTemperature anomalies and percentiles are shown on the gridded maps below. The anomaly map on the left is a product of a merged land surface temperature (Global Historical Climatology Network, GHCN) and sea surface temperature (ERSST.v3b) anomaly analysis developed by Smith et al. (2008). Temperature anomalies for land and ocean are analyzed separately and then merged to form the global analysis. For more information, please visit NCDC's Global Surface Temperature Anomalies page. The December 2013 Global State of the Climate report introduces percentile maps that complement the information provided by the anomaly maps. These new maps on the right provide additional information by placing the temperature anomaly observed for a specific place and time period into historical perspective, showing how the most current month, season or year compares with the past. TemperaturesIn the atmosphere, 500-millibar height pressure anomalies correlate well with temperatures at the Earth's surface. The average position of the upper-level ridges of high pressure and troughs of low pressure—depicted by positive and negative 500-millibar height anomalies on the December 2013 map—is generally reflected by areas of positive and negative temperature anomalies at the surface, respectively. DecemberThe December 2013 globally-averaged temperature across land and ocean surfaces was 0.64°C (1.15°F) above the 20th century average of 12.2°C (54.0°F), the third highest for December since records began in 1880. This also marks the eighth consecutive month (since May 2013) with a global monthly temperature ranking among the top 10 highest for its respective month. The global land surface temperature anomaly was 1.12°C (2.02°F) higher than average, tying with 1998 as fifth highest on record for the month of December. The Southern Hemisphere was second warmest for the month over land, behind only the record high temperature set just last year in December 2012. The Northern Hemisphere had its seventh highest December temperature in the 134-year period of record. This stands in sharp contrast to December 2012, when the average temperature for the hemisphere ranked 70th, a good example of how variable temperature over land surfaces can be. Across the globe, record warmth was observed across parts of central and eastern Russia, where temperature anomalies exceeded 5°C (9°F) across a large swath of the country. Record warmth was also present in various areas of coastal and southern Africa, and sections of southern South America. It was much cooler than average across parts of central and eastern Canada, the west coast of the United States, southern Greenland, part of southeastern Asia, and most of the Middle East, with record cold temperatures (more than 5°C / 9°F below average according to the December Land & Ocean Temperatures Percentiles map above) observed around eastern Turkey and northern Iraq. Select national information is highlighted below:
The December 2013 globally-averaged ocean temperature anomaly of 0.46°C (0.83°F) tied with 2004 as the seventh warmest on record for December. For the 20th straight month, ENSO-neutral conditions persisted, with near-average sea surface temperatures (SST) across much of the equatorial Pacific Ocean. According to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, neutral conditions are favored to continue into the Northern Hemisphere summer 2014. In other regions, it was notably warmer than average in the much of the Indian Oceam, the northern and southwestern Pacific Ocean, and various regions of the Atlantic Ocean. Some record warmth was also observed in each of these regions. Parts of the northwestern Atlantic Ocean and some regions of the Southern Ocean were cooler than average during December. In particular, waters to the South of South America were much cooler than average. Images of sea surface temperature conditions are available for all weeks during 2013 from the weekly SST page. The January–December map of temperature anomalies shows that warmer-than-average temperatures occurred across the vast majority of the globe during 2013. Global temperatures were influenced by ENSO-neutral conditions throughout the year, along with eight months (February, May–July, and September–December) of global land surface temperatures that ranked among the top 10 for their respective months. No month during 2013 ranked lower than 17th warmest (April) during the year. Overall, the 2013 worldwide combined land and ocean surface temperature was 0.62°C (1.12°F) above the 20th century average, tying with 2003 as the fourth warmest year on record. This temperature anomaly is 0.04°C (0.07°F) less than the record warmth of 2010. Separately, the 2013 average global land surface temperature was also the fourth highest on record and the ocean surface temperature tied with 2006 as the eighth highest. Record warmth was observed across much of southern and western Australia, southwestern Ethiopia, eastern Tanzania, part of central Asia around Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, a large section of the southwestern Pacific Ocean, and small regions of the Arctic, central Pacific, and central Indian Oceans. Also noteworthy, it was much warmer than average across many other land and ocean regions all across the globe. Temperatures were cooler than average across part of the central United States, a region where record warmth prevailed in 2012, along with small sections of the eastern Pacific Ocean and the Southern Ocean off the tip of South America. No record cold regions were observed for the January–December 2013 period. Please refer to the NCDC State of the Climate Annual Global Analysis report for more detailed information.... As is typical, precipitation anomalies during December 2013 varied significantly around the world.
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