August State of the Climate Continues Trend

NOAA released its August 2014 State of the Global Climate report this morning and the bad news continues. Here are some of the highlights:

• The combined average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces for August 2014 was record high for the month, at 0.75°C (1.35°F) above the 20^th century average of 15.6°C (60.1°F), topping the previous record set in 1998.
  
• The global land surface temperature was 0.99°C (1.78°F) above the 20^th century average of 13.8°C (56.9°F), the second highest on record for August, behind 1998.
  
• For the ocean, the August global sea surface temperature was 0.65°C (1.17°F) above the 20^th century average of 16.4°C (61.4°F). This record high departure from average not only beats the previous August record set in 2005 by 0.08°C (0.14°F), but also beats the previous all-time record set just two months ago in June 2014 by 0.03°C (0.05°F).
  
• The combined average global land and ocean surface temperature for the June–August period was also record high for this period, at 0.71°C (1.28°F) above the 20^th century average of 16.4°C (61.5°F), beating the previous record set in 1998.
  
• The June–August worldwide land surface temperature was 0.91°C (1.64°F) above the 20^th century average, the fifth highest on record for this period. The global ocean surface temperature for the same period was 0.63°C (1.13°F) above the 20^th century average, the highest on record for June–August. This beats the previous record set in 2009 by 0.04°C (0.07°F).
  
• The combined average global land and ocean surface temperature for January–August (year-to-date) was 0.68°C (1.22°F) above the 20^th century average of 14.0°C (57.3°F), the third highest for this eight-month period on record.

This report continues the trend we have been seeing all year. See my previous postings on the state of the climate for June and July.

This is really grim. But, you know what the worst part is? Deniers will point at last weekend's cold snap and say that there is no global warming.

Let's update the tally for the year:

August was the hottest August ever recorded;

July was the fourth hottest July ever recorded;

June 2014 was the hottest June ever recorded;

May was the hottest May ever recorded;

April tied 2010 as the hottest April ever recorded;

March was the fourth hottest March ever recorded;

We got a break in February. It was only the 21st hottest February ever recorded;

But, that break followed the hottest January since 2007 and the fourth hottest January on record.

So, let's see what the score is so far for 2014: one 21st hottest month, three 4th hottest months, and four hottest months ever.

And, overall, 2014 is on track to be the third hottest year ever recorded.

But, the deniers will continue to claim the warming has stopped. That only works to make bad news even worse.