Story at a glance
- November 2019 was just confirmed as the second hottest November ever recorded, coming in second only to November 2015.
- Temperatures have been getting warmer around the fall season for eight consecutive years.
- Climate change impacts places differently, with the U.S. and India suffering strong storms.
If you weren’t chilly playing football with your family during Thanksgiving, you probably weren’t alone; a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report states that November 2019 was the second warmest November in recorded history.
As a whole, 2019 is likely to be the second warmest year in history. The highest recorded November temperatures occurred in 2015.
This past November, the average land and ocean surface temperature was 1.66 degrees Fahrenheit above average. Putting it into a larger context, the year-to-date global land and ocean surface temperature rang in at 1.69 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average.
This abnormality — although increasingly common since 2013 — has had different impacts in different locations. While continents like Africa and South America, as well as countries like New Zealand, saw the highest November temperatures this year, countries like India and parts of the U.S. saw atypical cyclones or hurricanes during the month.
Climate and environmental activists warn that while climate change is devastating for everyone on Earth, those in more remote nations tend to suffer the most. Rising sea levels and abnormal weather patterns negatively impact the lives of indigenous people who live off of the land and closer to nature.
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