Renewable Revolution

EcoWatch

Common Dreams

Jun. 08, 2018 07:44AM EST


By Jake Johnson

SNIPPET:

Surpassing a mark set during the peak of the Dust Bowl in 1934, the continental U.S. just had its hottest May on record thanks in large part to the human-caused climate crisis, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced on Wednesday.

"For May, the average contiguous U.S. temperature was 65.4°F, 5.2°F above the 20th century average," NOAA observed in its breakdown of the new data. "The first five months of 2018 were marked by large month-to-month swings in temperature, but when averaged, the contiguous U.S. temperature was 45.0°F, 1.6°F above the 20th century average and was the 21st warmest January-May on record."

"The warmth was coast-to-coast," Jake Crouch, a climate scientist with NOAA's National Center for Environmental Information, said in an interview with USA Today.

While acknowledging that tropical storms—in addition to other "climate anomalies"—played a role in driving up May's average temperature, Crouch told USA Today that the man-made climate change contributed significantly to the record-breaking heat.

read more:

https://www.ecowatch.com/monthly-temperatures-climate-change-2576246064.html