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State of the Climate
Global Analysis
October 2001

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

National Climatic Data Center

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Global Analysis Report
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Global Analysis Report

Global Highlights:

  • *Global average land and sea surface temperature was the warmest on record for October
  • Lower tropospheric temperatures were above average during the month
  • Temperatures in the lower stratosphere were cooler than average
  • Above average precipitation was most notable across southern Asia, Japan and Argentina, with below average precipitation across the Mediterranean region and the eastern seaboard of the U.S.
  

Contents of this Section:
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Top of Page Introduction

Anomalous warmth (using a 1992-2001 base period as shown in the adjacent blended product of satellite and in-situ data) was notable across Europe and north Africa as well as eastern Asia. While strong upper level ridges of high pressure controlled the weather in these areas during October, upper level troughs of low pressure (depicted by negative 500 millibar height anomalies) were situated across central Russia, west of the British Isles and across much of Alaska and southern Canada. Temperature anomalies calculated from in-situ station data using a 1961-1990 base period also show the cooler than average temperatures in these regions as well as over Australia. Click Here for the Global Blended Temperature in October 2001
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Top of Page Temperature

  • *October 2001 global land and ocean temperature was the warmest in the 1880 to present record and was 0.57°C (1.03°F) above the long-term average (0.47°C / 0.85°F above the 1961-1990 mean)
  • Temperatures averaged across ocean areas were second warmest for October, or 0.46°C (0.83°F) above average
  • Across land areas, October temperatures also ranked second warmest, or 0.84°C (1.51°F) above average
 Click Here for the Global Temp Anomalies in October 2001
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Click Here for the October Hemispheric Temperatures
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  • *Northern Hemispheric temperatures were also warmest on record for October, or 0.67°C (1.21°F) above average using the 1880-2000 mean (0.61°C / 1.10°F using a 1961-1990 base period)
  • Temperatures averaged across the Southern Hemisphere were fourth warmest for October, or 0.47°C / 0.85°F above the long term mean
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Top of Page Precipitation

  • Late season monsoon rains brought above average precipitation to parts of southern Asia, from eastern India into Laos
  • Monthly precipitation surpluses of 100-200 mm (3.94-7.87 inches) were common across parts of northern Argentina as well as Japan
  • Drier than average weather was prevalent across interior Europe and the Mediterranean as well as the eastern seaboard of the U.S.
 Click Here for the Global Precip Anomalies in October 2001 larger image

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Top of Page Microwave Sounding Unit Data

Click Here for the Lower Tropospheric Temperature time series
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  • October temperatures averaged in the lowest 8km (5 miles) of the tropospherewere above average (0.15°C /0.27°F)
  • Northern and Southern Hemisphere temperatures in the lower troposphere were 0.15°C (0.27°F) and 0.14°C (0.25°F) above average, respectively
Click Here for the Lower Stratospheric Temperature time series
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  • October temperatures in the lower stratosphere were 0.38°C (0.68°F) below average
  • This was the 9th consecutive October with cooler than average temperatures in the lower stratosphere

Lower tropospheric and lower stratospheric temperature data are collected by NOAA's TIROS-N polar-orbiting satellites and adjusted for time-dependent biases by NASA and the Global Hydrology and Climate Center at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

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

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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.

Questions?

For questions on technical or scientific content of this report, please contact:

Ahira Sánchez-Lugo:
Ahira.Sanchez-Lugo@noaa.gov

For general climate monitoring questions, please contact:

CMB.Contact@noaa.gov

For climate data orders, please contact the National Climatic Data Center's Climate Services and Monitoring Division:

NCDC.Orders@noaa.gov

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