Rising temperatures last year capped the world’s warmest decade in modern times, federal climate scientists said Thursday.
In a new climate study, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ranked 2020 dead, 2016 being the warmest year since official registration began in 1880. The recording heat came despite the cooling current in La Niña. in the Pacific Ocean, which affected slightly lower global temperatures in December.
In a separate assessment launched at the same time, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which relies on slightly different temperature records and methods, calculated that the global average temperature last year was the second highest so far – only 0.04 degrees Fahrenheit shy to tie 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 another piece of evidence that tells us that the planet has been warming up for decades.”
NASA and NOAA scientists have labeled 2020 a year of extremes, driven by rising levels of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, which capture heat from the atmosphere.