National

September was hottest on record around the world

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer
This NOAA satellite image taken Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2015, at 12:45 AM EDT shows an area of low pressure over the upper Mississippi Valley into the northern Great Lakes. The system's warm front will bring rain showers to Michigan and Ontario as it moves eastward. Further south, a stationary boundary continues to produce rain showers across southern Florida. A broad area of high pressure over the Eastern Seaboard is promoting mostly sunny skies from New England into the Mid-Atlantic and the Carolinas.
This NOAA satellite image taken Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2015, at 12:45 AM EDT shows an area of low pressure over the upper Mississippi Valley into the northern Great Lakes. The system's warm front will bring rain showers to Michigan and Ontario as it moves eastward. Further south, a stationary boundary continues to produce rain showers across southern Florida. A broad area of high pressure over the Eastern Seaboard is promoting mostly sunny skies from New England into the Mid-Atlantic and the Carolinas. NOAA/Weather Underground AP
WASHINGTON

This past September was the hottest ever worldwide – the seventh monthly record set this year.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration calculated a global temperature for September of 60.62 degrees (15.9 degrees Celsius), beating the record set in 2014.

Seven of the nine months this year have broken monthly global heat records, tying 1998 for the most monthly heat records broken. This year, only January and April did not surpass records going back to 1880.

Climate scientists blame man-made global warming and El Nino.

This is has been the hottest first nine months of any year. NOAA climate scientist Jessica Blunden said it would take a highly unlikely cold stretch the rest of the year for 2015 not to pass 2014 as the hottest on record.

This story was originally published October 21, 2015 at 10:59 AM with the headline "September was hottest on record around the world."

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