Globally, April was 13th Warmest
The National Climatic Data Center has just released their official global temperature and precipitation statistics for April 2008.
--The combined global land and ocean surface temperature in April was 0.74 F (0.41 C) above
the 20th century mean of 56.7 F (13.7 C) making it the 13th warmest on record.
--April 2008 had the 8th least extensive snow cover extent globally for the 42-year satellite record. I know, I know that seems pretty shocking for many of us in the western and midwestern U.S., including British Columbia and eastern Canada.
--The northern hemispheric sea ice extent for April was below the 1979-2000 mean, but greater than the previous 4 years.
--The southern hemispheric sea ice extent for April was much above the 1979-2000 mean and actually was a record high with a 17.5% greater extent than the mean!
--Lower troposphere temperatures which are measured using satellites and radiosondes on balloons showed the following....
UAH (University of Alabama-Huntsville)...+0.04 F (+0.02 C) above normal or 17th warmest on the UAH scale.
RSS (Remote Sensing Systems)....+0.14 F (+0.08 C) above normal or 15th warmest.
Not the case in the U.S...........
In the Lower 48 of the United States, April 2008 was the coolest April in the past 11 years or 29th coolest April based on records going back to 1895. For more on the U.S. April data see here.
Images are courtesy of the National Climatic Data Center.
