Global temperature in April ties for record highest

The average global temperature in April 2014 tied with the same month in 2010 as the warmest for the month since record keeping began in 1880, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Tuesday.

The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for both months were 14.47 degrees Celsius, which is 0.77 degrees Celsius above the 20th century average.

"April marked the 38th consecutive April and 350th consecutive month with a global temperature above the 20th century average," said the NOAA's latest monthly climate report.

"The last below-average temperature for April was in 1976 and the last average or below-average temperature for any month was February 1985," it said.

Many areas of the world were much warmer than average, with much of central Siberia observing temperatures more than 5 degrees Celsius above the 1981-2010 average. This region, along with parts of eastern Australia and scattered regions in every major ocean basin, was record warm.

The contiguous U.S., however, observed only its 46th warmest April and much of Canada had cooler-than-average to near-average temperatures for the month, the NOAA said.

"This contrast is an example of how a globally-averaged temperature can differ from a single smaller region," it said.