GISTEMP Update

May 2018 was Fourth Warmest May on Record

Superimposed line plots of monthly temperature anomalies for 1880-2015
The GISTEMP monthly temperature anomalies superimposed on a 1980-2015 mean seasonal cycle. — View larger image or PDF

May 2018 is the fourth warmest May and the period March-April-May is the third warmest Northern Hemisphere spring in 138 years of modern record-keeping, according to a monthly analysis of global temperatures by scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York.

Last month and N.H. spring were respectively +0.82 °C and +0.86 °C warmer than the corresponding averages of the 1951-1980 period. Only May 2016 (+0.91 °C), 2017 (+0.88 °C) and 2014 (+0.85 °C) were warmer than the past month and only the springs of 2016 (+1.10 °C) and 2017 (+0.97 °C) surpassed this year's spring.

Global map of the GISTEMP land-ocean temperature index anomaly for May 2018, relative to the 1951-1980 average
A global map of the May 2018 LOTI (land-ocean temperature index) anomaly, relative to the 1951-1980 May average. — View larger image

The monthly analysis by the GISS team is assembled from publicly available data acquired by about 6,300 meteorological stations around the world, ship- and buoy-based instruments measuring sea surface temperature, and Antarctic research stations.

The modern global temperature record begins around 1880 because previous observations didn't cover enough of the planet. Monthly analyses are sometimes updated when additional data becomes available, and the results are subject to change.

Related Links

For more information on NASA GISS's monthly temperature analysis, visit: data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp.

For more information about NASA GISS, visit: www.giss.nasa.gov.

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