Longest-ever streak of record-warm months ends

The longest-ever streak of monthly temperature records came to an end last month, federal scientists reported Monday, as 2016’s September clocked in as only the second-hottest on record. 

{mosads}Before last month, a record 16 months in a row had broken their global high temperature marks. Scientists have attributed the recent warmth to both a strong El Niño in the Pacific and long-term warming trends that underpin the science behind climate change. 

Despite the streak coming to an end, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said 2016 remains on pace to be the warmest year since record-keeping began in 1880. The first nine months of the year were 1.78 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average, by far the warmest such period on record. 

The average global temperate in September was 60.6 degrees Fahrenheit, or 1.6 degrees above the 20th-century average, according to the NOAA. That was the second-hottest mark on record for the month, falling only 0.07 degrees behind last year’s total. 

Except for Western Australia and a few patches of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the average temperature everywhere on Earth was at or above average in September. Europe and Asia recorded their warmest-ever Septembers; Africa had its second-warmest September; and North America had its third-warmest. 

With data now available through September, 2016 annual record (~1.25ºC above late 19th C) seems locked in. pic.twitter.com/Btp3Vutakn

— Gavin Schmidt (@ClimateOfGavin) October 17, 2016

Scientists have long expected 2016 to break the annual temperature record set last year. Gavin Schmidt, the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, on Monday tweeted that the annual record “seems locked in” this year.