BUFFALO, N.Y. — Earlier this month the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released its analysis of annual global temperatures data for last year, and no surprise, the warming trend continues.
2021 ranks as the sixth-warmest year on record for the globe with an average global land and ocean surface temperature of 1.51 degrees Fahrenheit. Average or above average surface temperatures were felt across almost the entire globe last year. The only exception is the Equatorial Pacific Ocean, which makes sense as the year began and ended with two La Niñas.
The top six warmest years, including 2021, have all occurred since 2015, with consecutive warming of global temperatures since 1977. For reference, these records for global temperature go back to 1880.
As for our continent, North America's average annual temperature ranks as the seventh-warmest year on record, fueled by heat waves in June and July and an extremely warm December.
Western New York fits this trend from 2021 in a few ways, but the year doesn't rank as on of the top 10 warmest on record locally. And it's nowhere near 2020, which ended up ranking as the second warmest year for Buffalo on record.
But the warm weather records were still plentiful last year, much more than any cold weather ones. Five months from 2021 now rank within the top 10 warmest for their month in Buffalo, respectively.
This past March was the 10th-warmest on record, June was the fifth-warmest on record, October is the third-warmest on record, December is the second-warmest on record, and taking the top spot, August of 2021 is now the warmest on record for the month. Many of these months also include a handful of days where many daily record high temperatures were broken as well.
But the new year couldn't be off to a more different start with slightly below average temperatures, well above average snowfall for January and already several arctic cold blasts. In fact, this January is on track to rank as one of the top 10 snowiest on record for the month which hasn't happened since 2019.
