Nasa says April was world's second hottest in the 137 years on record

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.”

Dr Chris Huntingford, a climate modeller at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, said: “Many people don't believe the climate models or the statistics, but you have to believe what's in front of you.

“Over and over again we are directly measuring temperatures matching or exceeding those previously recorded. Put simply, the climate change signal is becoming ever more obvious.

“At what point do things become dangerous if the planet continues along this warming pathway? And are mechanisms in place to slow or stall the emerging trend? We are in potentially risky and unchartered territory here.”

Professor Piers Forster, a climatologist at Leeds University, said: “We need to be very careful reading too much into a hot month. The important evidence for climate change is the long-term upward trend – and we are certainly seeing that.

“Scientists or campaigners jumping up and down when a record is broken will only backfire and get climate scientists accused of making false predictions if next April is cooler – it may be cooler or warmer next year, but it doesn't really matter because overall, temperatures are rising.

“A good example is this winter is the UK: we expect wetter winters for the UK under climate change, but one dry winter doesn’t mean our predictions are wrong – just that the UK weather is variable.”