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Climate of 2002 January in Historical Perspective National Climatic Data Center, 14 February 2002

Global Analysis / Global Regional / United States / U.S. Drought / Extreme Events / Climate Indices
Use these links to access detailed analyses of Global and U.S. data.

Global Highlights: *Global average land and ocean temperature was the warmest on record for January Lower tropospheric temperatures were above average during January Temperatures in the lower stratosphere were cooler than average During January, above average precipitation was most notable across eastern Brazil and Scandinavia, with drier than average conditions across southern Europe and much of Australia

Contents of this Section: Introduction Global Temperatures Global Precipitation Microwave Sounding Unit Data

Introduction

Using a 1992-2002 base period as shown in the adjacent blended temperature product of satellite and in-situ data, anomalously warm temperatures during January in the Northern Hemisphere occurred where upper level ridges of high pressure (depicted by positive 500 millibar height anomalies) were present. Cooler than average temperatures were most pronounced across eastern regions of the Sahara Desert and southeastern Europe. Temperature anomalies calculated from in-situ station data using a 1961-1990 base period also depicted the large area of warm anomalies that covered much of the mid and high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere.

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Temperature

Indications of a likely trend toward El Niño conditions continued during January, as the global land and ocean temperature was the warmest in the 1880 to present record or 0.69°C (1.24°F) above the long-term average Temperatures averaged across land areas were also warmest on record, or 1.35°C (2.43°F) above the long-term January mean Ocean temperatures ranked as third warmest, or 0.41°C (0.74°F) above the 1880-2000 mean

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Based on data available at the time of this report, temperatures in the extratropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere (90°N-20°N) were warmest on record for January, or 1.15°C (2.07°F) above the 1880-2000 mean Globally, the period November-January was the second warmest on record, or 0.57°C (1.03°F) above average Significant positive temperature anomalies during the November-January period were centered across the eastern half of the United States

Precipitation

Drier than average weather prevailed across much of the United States, southern Europe and large areas of Australia Above average precipitation fell in eastern Brazil, Indonesia, Scandinavia and Japan Additional details on significant precipitation events can be found on the Global Regional page

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Microwave Sounding Unit Data

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January temperatures in the lowest 8km (5 miles) of the troposphere were 0.23°C (0.41°F) above average, with similar temperature anomalies across the Northern and Southern Hemisphere

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January temperatures were below average in the lower stratosphere, with a departure of -0.41°C (-0.74°F) This was the 9th consecutive January with below average stratospheric temperatures

  For additional details on precipitation and temperatures in January see the Global Regional page .
*Based on preliminary data available at the time of this report

References:

Peterson, T.C. and R.S. Vose, 1997: An Overview of the Global Historical Climatology Network Database. Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc., 78, 2837-2849.

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For questions about this report, please contact:

David Easterling
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fax: 828-271-4328
email: David.Easterling@noaa.gov

Jay Lawrimore
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fax: 828-271-4328
email: Jay.Lawrimore@noaa.gov

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