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Here's the latest from EarthNow…
This display shows the NOAA climate digest for January 2013.
The climate digest summarizes noteworthy statistics for the month, season, and year.
The average global land and ocean temperature for January was the ninth warmest January
on record.
Much of the eastern half of the United States was warmer than normal. The country as a whole
experienced its 39th warmest January on record.
Australia set a new record for the hottest day on January 7th, at almost 105 degrees
Fahrenheit. The average maximum temperature for January in Australia, was also the highest
in its 104 year record.
Moving up to China, the country experienced its direst January since 1986.
Meanwhile, Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan received a rare snowfall with up to 20 cm of snow,
on January 10th. This is the largest snowfall in that area since 1992.
Now, we’ll turn to the Arctic sea ice extent. The January sea ice extent for the Arctic
was 7.2 percent below the 1979 to 2000 average. This makes it the sixth smallest January ice
extent on record.
Finally, we’ll travel all the way to Antarctica and discover that its sea ice extent for January
was 14 percent above the 1979 to 2000 average, making it the seventh largest ice extent on
record.
This real-time dataset is updated monthly and shows the global land and ocean temperature
anomalies. Anomalies are simply departures from average. Blue colors indicate cooler
than normal temperatures, whereas red colors indicate warmer than normal temperatures.
White indicates around average conditions. We’ll take a look at three areas.
First, we can see how the eastern United States was much above normal for January, whereas
as the western portion was below average.
As discussed earlier, Australia experienced record-breaking warm temperatures.
Lastly, we can see the below normal temperatures across northern Asia and much of Europe. As
we’ll see later, this led to some increased snowfall for the month of January.
This real-time dataset shows sea surface temperature anomalies measured by NOAA satellites. Blue
colors indicate cooler than normal ocean temperatures, whereas red indicates warmer than normal sea
temperatures.
In the eastern tropical Pacific, water temperatures hovered only slightly below average, meaning
that no El Niño or La Niña conditions are present. The Climate Prediction Center expects
this to continue through at least the Northern Hemisphere Spring.
Take a look at some of the ocean temperature differences around the world.
This real-time dataset collected by microwave sensors on NOAA satellites shows snow and
ice cover updated daily. Watch the progression of days and note the retreat and expansion
of snowfall.
As mentioned earlier, much of northern Asia and Europe experienced above average snow
cover for the month of January. In fact, at 1.5 million square kilometers above average,
the snow extent in this region was the sixth highest on record.
North America’s snow cover extent was not quite as much above average. It was, however,
the 13th largest January snow extent on record, at 370,000 square kilometers above average.
For more information, please visit the website shown at the end of this video.