May 2016 Was the 8th Consecutive Warmest Month on Record For the Earth, NASA Says

https://weather.com/news/climate/news/record-warmest-may-earth-2016

By Chris Dolce
June 13, 2016

May 2016 was the warmest May on record for the earth, according to an analysis released Monday by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. The top three warmest Mays in NASA's dataset have all now occurred in the last three years.

The global temperature departure in May 2016 was 0.93 degrees Celsius [1.67F] above the 1951-1980 average. This beat the previous May record set in 2014 by 0.07 degrees Celsius [0.126F]. This also marks the eighth consecutive month in a row in NASA's dataset that the earth has recorded its warmest respective month on record.

Every month from October 2015-April 2016 had a departure of 1 degree Celsius or greater above the 1951-1980 average used by NASA. The departure from average in a single month had never exceeded 1 degree Celsius prior to October dating back to 1880.

May fell just short of this mark at 0.93 degrees Celsius above the average, but still ranks as the eighth largest departure from average for a given month.

May 2016 also continues a string of 370 consecutive months [30 years, 10 months] at or warmer than average. The last colder-than-average month in NASA's database was July 1985

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