Last month was the second warmest April on record, according to Nasa.
The global temperature was 0.88 degrees Celsius above the average for the month from 1951 to 1980, behind last year’s record figure of 1.06C warmer.
A map of the world of the difference in temperatures showed strong warming of up to 5C in north-western Canada and Alaska and much of Siberia. Northern China and Mongolia also experienced much higher temperatures than usual.
The few places in the world that were cooler included much of the Antarctic, parts of south-east Asia and north-east Canada.
In a statement on its website, Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies said: “April 2017 was the second warmest April in 137 years of modern record-keeping.
“Last month was 0.88 degrees Celsius warmer than the mean April temperature from 1951-1980. The two top April temperature anomalies have occurred during the past two years.
“April 2016 was the hottest on record, at 1.06 degrees Celsius warmer than the April mean temperature.
“This past April was only slightly warmer than the third warmest April, which occurred in 2010 and was 0.87 degrees warmer than the mean.”
The data was produced using temperature readings from 6,300 meteorological stations around the world, Antarctic research stations and instruments on ships and buoys in the sea. The information is publicly available.
“The modern global temperature record begins around 1880 because previous observations didn't cover enough of the planet,” Nasa said.
It cautioned: “Monthly analyses are sometimes updated when additional data becomes available, and the results are subject to change.”
