NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information
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Contents of This Report:
Global Temperature
| Global surface temperatures continued to average much above the long-term mean (1880-1999) in October as shown in the figure above. The October 2000 combined land and ocean temperature was 0.35C above average, the eighth warmest October on record. Below average October temperatures have not been recorded on a global basis since 1978. Since that time, October global temperatures have risen at a rate of 0.15 per decade. The rate of temperature increase since 1880 is 0.05C per decade. Ocean temperatures were 0.34C above average, which tied 1990 as the 5th warmest on record, while land temperatures tied 1931 and 1897 as the 18th warmest at 0.36C above the 1880-1999 average. |
| The adjacent map, based on in-situ data alone, shows the spatial distribution of temperature anomalies throughout the world with respect to a 1961-1990 base period. Red dots indicate areas that were warmer than the 1961-1990 average, while cooler than average areas are indicated by blue dots. Regions with widespread above-normal temperatures included much of Scandanavia and central Europe, the central United States, southeast Brazil and parts of the Far East. |  larger image |
Areas of cooler than normal temperatures included much of central Asia and Mongolia, central Australia and scattered areas across the African continent. Temperatures were also cooler than normal in southern South America and across a large portion of the western United States. Additional details concerning U.S. temperatures can be found in the U.S. Regional Report .
Global Precipitation
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The adjacent map, based on in-situ data stations shows precipitation anomalies for October. Brown dots indicate areas which were drier than normal, and green dots indicate those that were wetter than normal. Areas receiving above normal precipitation include much of the western United States, western Europe and parts of Argentina and the Far East. Heavy rainfall from several tropical systems brought flooding across southern China especially around Hong Kong during the month. |
| Much drier than normal
conditions persisted in the southeast portion of the United States
with drought conditions in many areas. A large region of below
normal rainfall also stretched from central Europe into western
Siberia. Below normal rainfall was also observed across portions of
the Carribbean basin and in parts of northern South America. For additional details on temperature and precipitation throughout the world, please see the October global regional page. A detailed discussion of U.S. precipitation for October can be found on the U.S. National page. |
References:
Peterson, T.C. and R.S. Vose, 1997: An Overview of the Global
Historical Climatology Network Database. Bull. Amer. Meteorol.
Soc., 78, 2837-2849.