We knew October was going to be hot. Only hours ago the Japanese Meteorological Agency came out with their data showing October 2015 to be the hottest October in their database. I've not checked yet to see if it was the hottest month in their database. October 2015 was the hottest month in that entire database, which goes back to 1891.

October 2015 was the Warmest Month in the Entire NASA Dabase

Now, NASA GISS, which also keeps track of these things, has come out with their numbers. The predictions from experts like John Abraham indicated that October 2015 might be in the 90s (that's the anomaly value used by them, and that I use in the graphs here). If the temperature anomaly were to be high enough in the 90s, it would equal or break the record for warmest month ever in the entire direct temperature measurement database.

But it didn't do that, exactly. Nope. The temperature of the Earth's surface as measured by thermometers at heat height over land, combined with the sea surface temperature, was not in the 90s. It was 104.

SO, we are one full degree warmer than the NASA baseline, which is NOT the proper pre-industrial baseline. NASA uses 1951-1980 as their baseline, and that includes global warming that has already happened.

So here is the global average temperature anomaly for the entire NASA GISS database expressed as a running 12 month average, though October 2015:

And, here is the NASA GISS surface temperature anomaly for January through October, for all the years in the database, so you can see how 2015 stacks up so far:

The graphic at the top of the post is for all the Octobers only. If you want to use any of the graphs somewhere else, consider GOING HERE to get a higher resolution (just click on the graphic at that post and a higher res version will pop up).

Here are the warmest 20 months in the NASA GISS record of monthly temperature anomalies. Note that October 2015 is the warmest, and it beats out the previous warmest month, January '07, which was during a strong El Nino year:

2015OCT104

2007JAN97

2010MAR93

2002MAR91

2015MAR90

2014SEP89

1998FEB88

2015FEB87

2010APR87

2014OCT86

2014MAY86

2015JAN81

2014AUG81

2013NOV81

2015SEP80

2005OCT80

2015AUG79

2014DEC79

2014APR79

2012OCT79

(Note that these are temerature anomalies, not temperatures. Boreal summers tend to be the warmest months globally, so the warmest month in actual temperatures is probably June or July. But climate change is tracked with anomalies for obvious reasons.)

Sou at HotWhopper has more, including the graph she makes every month showing surface temperatures in yet another way, HERE.

Andy Skuce has a post discussing October's temperature reading, with another graph showing temperature anomalies across the months for several years, HERE.

And, R. Stefan Rahmstorf has posted the following graph here and here, for yet another look.



Eli Rabett has taken Rahmstorf's graphs for the last several months and turned them into a moving GIF, HERE.