Global Highlights:
- *Global average land and sea surface
temperature was the warmest on record for November and tied for
warmest for the boreal fall (September-November)
- Lower tropospheric temperatures were warmer than average for
November and for boreal fall
- Temperatures in the lower stratosphere were cooler than
average
- During September-November, above average precipitation was most
notable across Argentina, Taiwan and the U.S. Gulf Coast, with
below average precipitation across the northeastern U.S., India and
the western Mediterranean region
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Contents of this Section:
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Introduction
Using a 1992-2001 base
period as shown in the adjacent blended temperature
product of satellite and in-situ data, anomalous warmth during
the period September-November in the Northern Hemisphere was
closely correlated to the location of upper level ridges of high
pressure. These ridges of high pressure (depicted by
positive 500 millibar height anomalies) were centered near the
Canadian-U.S. border as well as Siberia into Mongolia and China.
Temperature anomalies calculated from in-situ station
data using a 1961-1990 base period also show the warmer than
average temperatures in these regions with cooler than average
temperatures restricted to much of Australia and Argentina. Similar
temperature distributions were present during November. |
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Temperature
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- Based on data available at the time of this
report, the global average land and ocean temperature for boreal
fall (September-November) was 0.57°C (1.03°F) above the
1880-2000 mean which ties with 1997 as warmest (0.46°C /
0.83°F above the 1961-1990 mean)
- During September-November, land temperatures
were the warmest on record (0.79°C /1.42°F above average)
while ocean temperatures were second warmest (0.47°C /
0.85°F above average)
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- Temperatures averaged across the Northern
Hemisphere were also warmest on record for the period
September-November, or 0.67°C (1.21°F) above the 1880-2000
mean, eclipsing the old record set during the El Niño fall
of 1998
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Precipitation
- Much above average precipitation fell across
northern Argentina and along the U.S. Gulf Coast
- Drier than average weather prevailed across the
northeastern U.S. as well as India and the western Mediterranean
region
- An active tropical weather season boosted
rainfall totals to much above average from southern Japan to
Taiwan, with much drier conditions arriving by November
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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.