Rising temperatures last year covered the world’s hottest decade in modern times, federal climate scientists said Thursday.
In a new climate study, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ranked 2020 in a cul-de-sac with 2016 as the hottest year since official recordings began in 1880. The record-setting heat came despite a cooling La Niña Pacific current that pounded Earth’s temperature declined slightly in December.
In a separate review published at the same time, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which relies on slightly different temperature records and methods, calculated that last year’s global average temperature was the second highest to date – just 0.04 degrees Fahrenheit shy of the record set in 2016.
“These long-term trends are very, very clear,” said Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. “This is yet another piece of evidence that tells us that the planet is warming decade after decade.”
Scientists from NASA and NOAA have labeled 2020 as a year of extremes, driven by rising levels of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane that trap heat in the atmosphere.