By: Dr. Jeff Masters , 3:31 PM GMT on June 23, 2014
May 2014 was Earth's warmest May since records began in 1880, beating the record set in 2010, said NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) and NASA. The planet has now had two back-to-back warmest months on record, since NOAA also rated April 2014 as being tied for the warmest April on record. This is the first time Earth has experienced back-to-back warmest months on record since a four-month stretch during March, April, May, and June 2010.
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According to wunderground's weather historian, Christopher C. Burt, in his May 2014 Global Weather Extremes Summary, an amazing heat wave occurred in China, Japan, and the Koreas the last week of May. Beijing saw its warmest May temperature on record with a 41.1°C (106.0°F) reading on May 30th, and all-time national heat records for the month of May were set for South Korea and China. A remarkable heat wave along the Baltic Sea broke the all time May heat record for Estonia (33.1°C/91.6°F at Kunda on May 19th) and at St. Petersburg, Russia with 33.0°C (91.4°F), also on May 19th. Gambia tied its all-time national heat record (for any month) on May 4th when the temperature rose to 45.5°C (113.9°F) at Kaur.
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[There were also notable extreme rainfall events, see the link above. Due to global warming, the air contains more moisture than it used to, so when conditions change, there is more likely to be heavy rainfall or snowfall.]
May 2014 featured neutral El Niño conditions in the equatorial Eastern Pacific, and sea surface temperatures have been hovering near the threshold for El Niño, +0.5°C from average, from late April through June 23. However, the atmosphere has not been behaving like it should during an El Niño event.
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NOAA is continuing its El Niño Watch, giving a 70% chance that an El Niño event will occur by the summer, with an 80% chance by the fall. In a June 20 article at Climate Central, Stephen Baxter, a seasonal forecaster with NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, said: “we’re nicely on track for a weak to moderate, but still potentially impactful” El Niño event in the fall to winter months.
[I would say the longer it is until we get an El Nino, the stronger it will probably be when it finally comes, because of the big buildup of heat in the Pacific from global warming. On the other hand, I'm not a climatologist and don't create computer simulations of the climate. Maybe the strength of an El Nino depends on the difference in temperatures, and since the globe is warmer, the differences might not be as much larger as in the past. Time will tell.]
Arctic sea ice extent during May was the 3rd lowest in the 36-year satellite record, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).
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