Energy & Environment

January was seventh-warmest on record: NOAA

by Zack Budryk 02/14/23 12:42 PM CST

FILE - Residents wade through floodwater around their homes after heavy rain in Antananarivo, Madagascar, Jan. 19, 2022, killed at least 10 people. African officials outlined their priorities for the upcoming U.N. climate summit, including a push to make heavily polluting rich nations compensate poor countries for the environmental damage done to them. The continent will also focus on how countries can adapt to global warming and how the continent can best halt further climate-related disasters. (AP Photo/Alexander Joe, File)

Last month marked the seventh-warmest January on record worldwide, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Tuesday.

The previous month saw an average global land and ocean surface temperature of 1.57 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than average. It was also the 47^th consecutive year in which January was warmer than the 20^th century average.

At the continental level, Europe had its single warmest January on record, while North America saw its fifth warmest and Africa saw its sixth. The Northern Hemisphere overall saw its fifth-warmest January on record last month.

The month also saw a new low for January Antarctic sea ice coverage, breaking a record set in 2017 by about 210,000 square miles. The Arctic, meanwhile, saw the third-smallest sea ice coverage on record, about 243,000 square miles fewer than the average from 1991 to 2020.

The hottest global January on record occurred in 2020, according to NOAA, breaking 2016’s previous record. All 48 states within the contiguous United States saw above-average temperatures that month, while worldwide land and ocean surface temperatures were more than 2 degrees above 53.6 degrees — the 20^th-century average.

The NOAA report comes after a month that was particularly unseasonably warm in the northeastern United States. New York City saw its single warmest January on record, with no average or below-average daily temperatures and an average temperature of 43.5 degrees, 10 degrees higher than average, according to AccuWeather data.

Another seven northeastern states also had their single warmest January on record in 2023: New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey and Maine, according to NOAA. The Hawaiian archipelago, meanwhile, tied its previous record for the warmest January, that of 1941.

New Year’s Day of this year was the hottest ever recorded in eight countries — Poland, Belarus, the Netherlands, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania and the Czech Republic, according to meteorologist Scott Duncan.