'Record-crushing' October keeps world on track for heat pinnacle

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t was Earth’s warmest October ever recorded and it wasn’t even close. The record-shattering month was right in step with most of the preceding months in 2015 — which is positioned to easily rank as the warmest year on record.

New data from the Japan Meteorological Agency and NASA show that the planet obliterated October records established just last year.  October 2015 out-baked October 2014 by 0.34 degrees (0.19 Celsius) and 0.32 degrees (0.18 Celsius) in JMA and NASA’s analyses, respectively.

And these records are breaking records.

The planet’s temperature departure from the long-term average of 1.04 Celsius in October is the greatest of any month ever recorded by NASA.  It marked the first time a monthly temperature anomaly exceeded 1 degrees Celsius in records dating back to 1880.  The previous largest anomaly was 0.97 Celsius from January, 2007.

Read The Washington Post story - “Record-crushing October keeps Earth on track for hottest year in 2015.”