Offbeat | Another month, another global heat record broken

September brought more record heat globally, and U.S. meteorologists say Earth is now on pace to tie for the hottest year ever recorded. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Monday that last month the globe averaged 60.3 degrees Fahrenheit. That was the hottest September in 135 years of record keeping. It was the fourth monthly record set this year, along with May, June and August.
The first nine months of 2014 have a global average temperature of 58.72 degrees, tying with 1998 and 2010 for the warmest first nine months on record. While parts of the U.S. Midwest, Russia and central Africa were slightly cool in September, it was especially hotter than normal in the U.S. West, Australia, Europe, northwestern Africa, central South America and parts of Asia.