Scientific American reports that Jeff Berardelli put the equatorial Pacific sea-surface anomaly at 3.05 °C, above the 3.02 °C anomaly of 2015. Kim Wood said a measure that includes background ocean warming has not reached an all-time high. The same reading is the hottest for late September. India Today reports that on 19 September a key Pacific region reached 3.05 °C above average, in a post it quotes as passing the November 2015 mark. The degree figure is shared. The label is not.
Scientific American says Jeff Berardelli put the equatorial Pacific sea-surface anomaly at 3.05 °C this late September, above the 3.02 °C anomaly of 2015. India Today says that on 19 September the key monitoring region reached 3.05 °C above average. The figure 3.05 is the shared observation. India Today's quoted post calls that reading a break of the November 2015 record and says three months of strengthening remain.[1], [2]
Kim Wood, as quoted by Scientific American, said a measure that includes background ocean warming has not reached an all-time high. The reading is the hottest for late September. That caveat is not in India Today's framing. El Niño here is a sea-surface comparison in one equatorial region. Berardelli's 3.05 °C sits above 2015 on the anomaly Wood separates from a warming-adjusted score.[1]
A reader can hold the shared number and the disputed label. Both publishers report 3.05 °C above the comparison baseline they are using. India Today, via the post it quotes, calls that a record against November 2015. Scientific American, via Wood, says the late-September value is the hottest of its kind and that a warming-adjusted measure has not reached the all-time high. Those sentences answer different questions.[1], [2]
