Enlarge (credit: NOAA) We’re off to a hot start in 2020, with January setting a new mark as the warmest instance of that month on record for the globe. And as NOAA pointed out in its monthly summary released Thursday, that occurred without the warming influence of an El Niño in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, where conditions remain neutral. Few places around the world had a cool month, with much of India and Alaska/Western Canada providing exceptions.