GHCN data late this month - interim results August warmer than July.

I have been posting monthly global temperatue anomaly averages for nearly fifteen years, based on land temperaturess from GHCN and ocean temperatures from ERSST. Both come via NOAA. In that time most temperatures are reported during the first few days. This was so last month, but this month there is a definite delay. The counts I use to determine publication were, on August 11:
ROW=3657 US=4705 Sea=3558
US means stations in USA; ROW means land stations elsewhere (both GHCN).

On September 11 we have:
ROW=2016 US=4692 Sea=3557

I normally require ROW>3200 for posting. Not only is the number of ROW stations low, but it has been increasing very slowly.

You might well wonder whether degraded NOAA capability following Trump intervention is responsible. But it is true that the big gaps are in China, Iran and Khazakstan, so current geopolitical tensions may play a role. But they haven't previously.

2000 ROW stations reporting is still respectable; it is far more than used to report in GHCN V3. So I'll post the results, but they may change if a large number of delayed data do turn up. 

The TempLS FEM anomaly (1961-90 base) was 0.968°C in August, up from 0.881°C in July, a rise of 0.081°C. That would make it the third warmest August in the record, just behind 2024 and 2023.

Here is the map of stations reporting:

Here is the corresponding stacked graph:


Here is the temperature map, using the FEM-based map of anomalies. Use the arrows to see different 2D projections.

As always, the 3D globe map gives better detail. There are more graphs and a station map in the ongoing report which is updated daily.