September Temperatures: Pleasantly Near-Average Locally, Hot Globally

With the climate data now in and processed, I thought we would take a quick look back at the month of September locally and globally.

For the State of Utah, the mean temperature for September was about as close as you can get to the 20th century average.  

Source: NCEI

Given that September is typically a "Goldilocks Month" in the Salt Lake Valley (not too hot, not too cold, but just right), the month overall rated as quite pleasant in my book, requiring neither air conditioning or heating of the home and most of the days.  

While the whims of the jet stream looked favorably on us, globally September was still beastly warm, rating as the 2nd hottest in the instrumented record.  

Source: NCEI

That's a fairly significant change as the last month that did not set a record for the hottest all time based on analyses by the National Centers for Environmental Information was April 2015.  That's quite a stretch of record setting warmth, although there are a few months in there where 2016 and 2015 are probably statistically indistinguishable (i.e., so close that they are essentially tied).  Even September 2016 and 2015 might fall into that category.

For the year to date, 2016 easily remains the hottest on record, 0.99ºC warmer than the 20th century average.  

Source: NCEI

Developing La Nina conditions in the tropical Pacific will knock the global temperatures down just a touch in the coming months, so the "race" between 2015 and 2016 will probably get a bit tighter between now and the end of December, but it's a virtual lock that 2016 will be the warmest calendar year on record.