MEDIA ADVISORY
CONTACT: Patricia Viets, NOAA FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
11/16/98
NOAA UPDATES OCTOBER CLIMATE STATISTICS
Canadian data received by the National Climatic Data Center over the
weekend altered the global mean for land temperature. Before this data
was received, October 1998 temperature anomalies were slightly below the
1997 record anomalies. Last Friday, NOAA reported that the temperature for October 1998 had fallen slightly below the record set in October 1997, which was 58.15 degrees F for the global mean (land and ocean). (See NOAA press release 98-81, issued November 13.) However, after the Canadian data were averaged into the global value, the 1998 global (land and ocean) mean exceeded the 1997 value by 0.03 degrees F.
NOAA expects to receive additional data from east Africa. Based on satellite-derived information, that area appears to have been typical of or slightly cooler than the past seven years.