May 2014 declared hottest on record by NASA and the Japanese Meteorological Agency

from Nick Sundt, World Wildlife Fund, June 17, 2014

NASA released data today (17 June) indicating that global surface temperatures in May 2014 were 0.76 oC above the 1951-1980 mean.  That is well above the previous record of 0.70 oC set in 2010 and again in 2012.  This is consistent with the data released yesterday by the Japan Meteorological Agency which also showed that May 2014 was the warmest May on record.  

For the March-April-May period, NASA data indicates that temperatures were 0.73 oC above the 1951-1980 mean, making it the second warmest such period on record behind only 2010 when May was 0.80 oC above the mean.  The japan Meteorological Agency separately calculated that March-April-May 2014 was the warmest on record, just ahead of 2010.  These kinds of small differences are common between the datasets maintained by Japan, the US and others.

Data source: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/tabledata_v3/GLB.Ts+dSST.txt 

Image below from: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/nmaps.cgi?sat=4&sst=3&type=anoms&mean_gen=05&year1=2014&year2=2014&base1=1951&base2=1980&radius=1200&pol=rob