--- title: World Sees Hottest May on Record description: It was officially the warmest May ever, too. canonical: https://time.com/3927737/earth-warm-hot-may-spring-record-noaa/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-19T01:25:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T08:21:08.486Z article:section: Science og:title: Earth Just Had Its Warmest Spring on Record og:description: It was officially the warmest May ever, too og:url: https://time.com/3927737/earth-warm-hot-may-spring-record-noaa/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb2a74079f6121bcd/6988554d35ba6f22b1c0dd37/spring-heat-nyc.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: People gather in in Central Park as temperatures in Manhattan hit 90 degrees F (32C) for the first time in 2015, in New York City on June 11, 2015. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Earth Just Had Its Warmest Spring on Record twitter:description: It was officially the warmest May ever, too twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb2a74079f6121bcd/6988554d35ba6f22b1c0dd37/spring-heat-nyc.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Earth Just Had Its Warmest Spring on Record by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jun 19, 2015 1:25 AM UTC  People gather in in Central Park as temperatures in Manhattan hit 90 degrees F (32C) for the first time in 2015, in New York City on June 11, 2015. People gather in in Central Park as temperatures in Manhattan hit 90 degrees F (32C) for the first time in 2015, in New York City on June 11, 2015.Kena Betancur—AFP/Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jun 19, 2015 1:25 AM UTC This year is shaping up to be a hot one—literally. This past May was [officially](https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/201505) the warmest on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a new report. What’s more, researchers say Earth experienced the warmed spring and first five months of the year on record, too. Land and sea temperatures across the globe were higher than the agency has ever recorded in more than 130 years. Last month was 1.57 degrees Fahrenheit above the average worldwide of 58.6 degrees, the agency said. And the spring averaged 1.53 degrees above the the typical temperature. In the U.S., May turned out to be the country’s [wettest month on record](http://time.com/3914048/us-record-rain-may-rainfall/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3927737/earth-warm-hot-may-spring-record-noaa/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3927737/earth-warm-hot-may-spring-record-noaa/"},"headline":"Earth Just Had Its Warmest Spring on Record","datePublished":"2015-06-19T01:25:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T08:21:08.486Z","description":"It was officially the warmest May ever, too","url":"https://time.com/3927737/earth-warm-hot-may-spring-record-noaa/","keywords":["weather","climate change","global warming","NOAA"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb2a74079f6121bcd/6988554d35ba6f22b1c0dd37/spring-heat-nyc.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb2a74079f6121bcd/6988554d35ba6f22b1c0dd37/spring-heat-nyc.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"People gather in in Central Park as temperatures in Manhattan hit 90 degrees F (32C) for the first time in 2015, in New York City on June 11, 2015.","caption":"People gather in in Central Park as temperatures in Manhattan hit 90 degrees F (32C) for the first time in 2015, in New York City on June 11, 2015.","creditText":"Kena Betancur—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/weather/","name":"weather"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3927737/earth-warm-hot-may-spring-record-noaa/","name":"Earth Just Had Its Warmest Spring on Record"}}]}] ```