More record global heat for May, Jan-May, and a new 12-month record. Maybe the ostriches might even feel it on their beaks beneath the sand.

See Climate Progress for the rundown (GISS tied record for May, longer time periods are records, snow and ice covers are terrible etc.).  I'll just add that UAH satellite records are getting very close to their 13 month running average high, and I think they'll beat it in 2-3 months.

Per my posts on previous months, the scientific relevance is how the trends fit into the giant mountain of evidence of human-caused change.  The news peg is important too to get people to pay attention.


Slightly-related new fact for me:  "the tree rings that diverge from the instrumental record are not all tree ring datasets, but rather a subset of tree ring datasets. In particular, the divergence problem applies to the Briffa 2000dataset taken from trees close to the Arctic Circle. Other tree ring datasets don’t show the same divergence issue"


I thought the leading explanation for why tree rings in recent decades didn't match temperature records was that they were affected by the increased CO2.  I'm not sure exactly how that works if not all trees were affected - maybe Briffa's Arctic species were especially sensitive to CO2.


UPDATE:  Skeptical Science lists potential causes for the divergence and doesn't mention CO2.  Hmmm.  I know I've seen it described that way though.