Climate: Monthly Temperature | |
Description: By averaging data over long time spans, typically 30 years or more, datasets are developed that describe the average climate conditions.
These datasets serve as references for comparing points in time to what would be expected. For example, is the temperature warmer or cooler this month than would be
expected from the historical average? Temperature climatologies compiled from in situ (on the ground) readings are extremely important for measurement, model,
and reconstruction analyses of Earth's temperature changes.
The Global Historical Climatology Network monthly analysis from the National Climatic Data Center uses data from thousands of land and ocean temperature stations worldwide to compute global temperature averages and anomalies. The majority of these locations date from the 1950's. This image plots the temperature anomaly for the past month. Blue areas are cooler than the historical average, red areas are warmer. Data in the high latitudes, around the Arctic and Antarctic circles, are not plotted as there are few weather monitoring stations in these regions; data is too sparse for inclusion in the analysis. This dataset is processed each month on the 15th with data that describes the previous full month, and coincides with the global climate analysis conducted by the National Climatic Data Center. A full archive of these analyses is available here. Data Source:NOAA/NESDIS/NCDC Global Surface Temperature Anomalies information page | |
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