April 2016 Was 12th Consecutive Warmest Month on Record, NOAA Says

April 2016 was the warmest April on record for the globe, making it the 12th consecutive month that earth has recorded its warmest respective month on record.

NOAA's global State of the Climate report released Wednesday found April's temperature over the Earth's surface was 1.10 degrees Celsius above the 20th century average. This crushed the previous warmest April set in 2010 by 0.28 degrees Celsius.

Defeating a previous record by a few tenths of a degree may not sound overwhelming, but in the world of climate statistics, computed from worldwide temperatures, this is yet another record-shattering figure.

The 12-month streak with record warm temperatures for the world is the longest stretch of months in a row that a global temperature record has been set in NOAA's dataset.

Read The Weather Channel story - “April 2016 Was 12th Consecutive Warmest Month on Record, NOAA Says.”

State of the Climate 2016 - from BOM and the CSIRO

The Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO play an important role in monitoring, analysing and communicating observed changes in Australia's climate.

This fourth, biennial State of the Climate report draws on the latest monitoring, science and projection information to describe variability and changes in Australia's climate, and how it is likely to change in the future. Observations and climate modelling paint a consistent picture of ongoing, long-term climate change interacting with underlying natural variability.

These changes affect many Australians, particularly changes associated with increases in the frequency or intensity of heat events, fire weather and drought. Australia will need to plan for and adapt to some level of climate change. This report is a synthesis of the science informing our understanding of climate in Australia, and includes new information about Australia's climate of the past, present and future. The science underpinning this report will help inform a range of economic, environmental and social decision-making and local vulnerability assessments, by government, industry and communities.

Read the Bureau of Meteorology  report - “State of the Climate 2016.”

Report can be confusing, but it in fact tells the real story

Climate change, or at least understanding it, is confusing for many people.

Dr Helen Cleugh.

Australia’s average temperature has increased by 0.9° C since 1901, which for many people is irrelevant and for some even welcomed.

The CSIROs and the Bureau of Meteorology’s latest State of the Climate report is a snapshot of how Australia’s weather is unfolding.

An ABC story headed: “Australia’s climate extremes increasing as carbon dioxide levels continue to rise, report reveals” tells of a noticeable variation in rainfall between north and southern parts of Australia, increase rainfalls, droughts and longer heatwaves.

Many welcome the warmer weather, unaware that even that miniscule increase, at least to them, is sufficient to have a dramatic impact on food cycles and the actual survival of many species; species without which humans also find their cherished position on the food-chain at risk,

The climate changes that are being felt throughout Australia are, according to CSIRO deputy chief of marine and atmospheric research, Dr Helen Cleugh, accompanied in the last two years by the highest ever jump in carbon dioxide levels.