The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) announced Wednesday June 2021 was the warmest June on record in North America. The service’s numbers date back to 1981. The average surface temperatures in North America were about one-quarter of a degree higher than the average for June 2012, the previous record-holder. They were also more than 2 degrees higher than the 30-year average.
C3S says the heatwave we saw in the western part of the continent was one of the biggest stories in the world when it comes to surface air temperature in June. New records for temperatures were set along the west coast, from the Pacific Northwest to places like Death Valley and Las Vegas.
It wasn’t just North America. Globally, June 2021 joined 2018 as the fourth warmest June on record. The only warmer Junes came in 2016, 2019 and 2020.
June 2021 was also the second warmest June on record in Europe. The hottest areas were in the Northeast part of the continent, stretching southwest to North Africa, and then as far southeast as Iran and Pakistan.
Arctic Siberia was another part of the world that saw high temperatures. The region experienced its joint-fourth warmest June on record, tying 2012. However, Antarctic temperatures were mostly below average.
Much of the United States will likely be hotter than normal for the rest of the summer. That’s according to the most recent analysis by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
That analysis says 2021 will be among the 10 warmest years ever recorded. However, 2021 will most likely stay out of the top five. That’s thanks to slightly cooler conditions earlier this year, and cooler-than-normal sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean.
NOAA also produces monthly temperature analyses, which are usually released later than those by Copernicus. The two agencies’ methods differ somewhat. NOAA uses more observational data, and Copernicus uses more modeling. However, the findings are usually in close agreement.
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