July Climate Wrapup

Our computer gurus are repairing our real-time weather storage system today, so I'm electing to take a look at the global climate highlights for July.  A summary specific to the US and Utah is available in an earlier post.

According to the National Climatic Data Center, July was the 7th warmest on record with a combined global ocean and land surface temperature 0.57C higher than the 20th century mean.  

The global analysis of surface temperature anomalies shows the above average temperatures that were observed in across the eastern 2/3 of North America.  Below average temperatures were observed along the Pacific Coast of the United States and in north-central Asia.

A take-home message from the above figure is that Mother Nature is no longer fair and balanced relative to the 20th century mean.  A greater fraction of the globe sees temperatures that are above average than below average.  

I thought I would also throw in an update from the NSIDC on the Arctic Sea Ice Extent, which is just above the record low levels (for the satellite era) observed in 2007. 

We're now about a month from the climatological minimum and the weather over the next few weeks will determine if a record will be set this year.