Last month was the hottest April on record across the world – making it the 12th month in a row when global temperature records were broken, scientists have said.

Malta too experienced drier and warmer temperatures than usual with an average daily high of 21°C last month and less than 4mm of rain reported.

April’s temperatures over global land and sea surfaces were 1.1°C above the 20th-century average, the figures from the US government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) show.

It means global temperatures last month outstripped the long-term average for April by the biggest margin since records began in 1880.

The record highs have happened in the face of a powerful El Niño climate phenomenon

April was also the fifth consecutive month in which monthly temperatures soared above the 20th-century average by more than 1°C.

And it is the 12th month in a row that monthly global temperature records have been broken, the longest such streak in 137 years of record keeping, Noaa said.

The first four months of 2016 have been the warmest recorded January to April over land and sea, with temperatures 1.14°C above average, beating the record set just last year.

The record highs have happened in the face of a powerful El Niño climate phenomenon in the Pacific, which pushes up global temperatures, and warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions from human activity. The January to April period surpassed temperatures seen in the same period in 1998 – the last time a similar strength El Niño was seen during the early part of the year – by 0.45 ºC. The El Niño is now weakening, with the chances of a La Niña – a phenomenon with lower temperatures – increasing later in the year.