It keeps getting hotter!

 Last month was the world's second warmest April EVER recorded, NASA reveals

• Nasa has been collecting global monthly temperature data since 1880
• April 2017 was 0.88°C hotter than the average April from 1951-1980
• It was second only to April 2016 which was 1.06°C warmer than this average
• The news comes just one month after Nasa announced that March 2017 was the hottest March ever recorded 

 

As global temperatures continue to rise, Nasa data has shown that April 2017 was the second warmest April ever recorded.

Last month was 0.88°C warmer than the average April temperature from 1951-1980, and was second only to April 2016.

The worrying news comes just one month after data showed that March 2017 was the hottest March ever recorded.

As global temperatures continue to rise, shocking Nasa data has shown that April 2017 was the second warmest April ever recorded. Last month was 0.88°C warmer than the average April temperature from 1951-1980, and was second only to April 2016

RISING GLOBAL TEMPERATURES 

Year	Temperature increase (°C relative to average temperature 1961-1990)
2016	0.77
2015	0.76
2014	0.58
2013	0.51
2012	0.47
2011	0.42
2010	0.56
2009	0.51
2008	0.39
2007	0.49
2006	0.51
2005	0.54
2004	0.45
2003	0.51
2002	0.5
2001	0.44
2000	0.29

Scientists from Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York have been collecting global temperature data since 1880.

The monthly data is compiled into a map of the world, which shows the changes in temperature from the average.

In April, temperatures rose by as much as 5°C in north-western Canada and Alaska, while Northern China and Mongolia also saw much higher temperatures than usual.

Only a few countries saw cooler months than average, including parts of the Antarctic and south-east Asia.

A spokesperson for Nasa said: 'April 2016 was the hottest on record, at 1.06 degrees Celsius warmer than the April mean temperature.

'April 2017's temperature was 0.18 degrees Celsius cooler than April 2016.

'This past April was only slightly warmer than the third warmest April, which occurred in 2010 and was 0.87 degrees warmer than the mean.'

The monthly analysis is assembled from data from 6,300 meteorological stations around the world, ship- and buoy-based instruments measuring sea surface temperature, and Antarctic research stations.

Professor Piers Forster, Professor of Climate Change at the University of Leeds, said: 'We need to be very careful reading too much into a hot month. 

'The important evidence for climate change is the long-term upward trend – and we are certainly seeing that.

'Scientists or campaigners jumping up and down when a record is broken will only backfire and get climate scientists accused of making false predictions if next April is cooler – it maybe cooler or warmer next year, but it doesn't really matter because overall, temperatures are rising.' 

Nasa created this map which shows the monthly temperature anomalies superimposed on a 1980-2015 mean seasonal cycle

March 2017 was also the hottest March ever recorded - and without a El Nino effect. 

El Nino is a natural warming of the Pacific that alters weather worldwide. 

Both 2015 and 2016 set repeated warmth records during an El Nino. 

'It's quite impressive; it's just climate change, not natural variability like El Nino', Mr Sanchez-Lugo from The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

'We typically expect the next year after El Nino to be slightly cooler.'
(The Mail, UK)