Last month was only tied for the third warmest on record, but it's still highly likely that 2016 will end up being the hottest in modern times, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Thursday.
The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for October was 0.73 degrees Celsius above the 20th century average of 14.0 degrees Celsius, tying with 2003 as the third warmest for the month on record, according to a monthly report released by NOAA.
"This is 0.47 degrees Celsius cooler than the record warmth of October 2015 when El Nino conditions were strengthening," said the report. "Including 2016, the past three Octobers have been the three warmest in the historical record."
Part of the reason that Earth's fever cooled down a bit in October was that La Nina, the counterpart of El Nino, has arrived.
"In October, La Nina's presence started to be felt, as global temperatures cooled from the record warm conditions experienced earlier in the year," NOAA said in a statement.
El Nino is associated with a warming of the central and eastern tropical Pacific, while La Nina is the reverse, with a sustained cooling of these same areas.
From May 2015 to August 2016, the globe has experienced 16 straight months of record-breaking temperatures. That was the longest streak since NOAA records began in 1880 and it was partly driven by El Nino.
For the year to date, the average global temperature was 0.97 degrees Celsius above average, surpassing the heat record set in 2015 by 0.10 degrees Celsius.
"With only two months left in the year, the globe remains on track to be one of the warmest years, if not the warmest" on record, NOAA added.
