Each month US weather service NOAA's subagency National Centers for Environmental Information produce a wide range of US and global analysis that puts recent weather into context. Parts of the monthly global climate report are reproduced below.
in short, May just gone continued a run of record anomalies for the month.
NOAA:
"May had a record-high monthly global ocean surface temperature for the 14th consecutive month.
"El Niño conditions that emerged in June 2023 were replaced by ENSO-neutral conditions during the past month, and according to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center La Niña is favored to develop during July-September (65% chance) and persist into the Northern Hemisphere winter 2024-25 (85% chance during November-January).
"The Northern Hemisphere also ranked as the warmest May on record at 1.44°C (2.59°F) above average.
"The Northern Hemisphere land temperature was also record warm in May (tied with 2020) and the ocean temperature was again record-high by a wide margin (0.25°C/0.45°F warmer than the previous record set in 2020).
The Arctic region had its 11th warmest May on record.May 2024 in the Southern Hemisphere also ranked warmest on record at 0.92°C (1.66°F) above average.
"The ocean-only temperature for May in the Southern Hemisphere ranked highest on record, while the land-only Southern Hemisphere temperature was 6th warmest on record.
"Meanwhile, the Antarctic region had its 23rd warmest May, 0.55°C (0.99°F) above average."
