2016 the Hottest Year on Record

The planet has now had three consecutive years of record-breaking heat. These latest weather statistics are shared among several United States and UK agencies and global weather groups, even if they differ in precise figures. “The pattern is very clear”, said Deke Arndt of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

As you can see below on the graph of annual global temperatures (relative to the 20th century average global temp) from 1880 to 2016, there is an unmistakable upward trend in temperature, with a notable acceleration since 1970.

These recorded temperatures “continue a long-term warming trend”, scientists from NASA said in a statement. The latest episode became particularly strong in 2015, and subsided about halfway through 2016. At present the conditions are neutral for El Niño and the opposite of El Niño called La Nina is yet to kick in which may bring the temperatures down.

The figures are based on ground-level temperatures.

“This is clearly a record”, he said. Carbon dioxide and methane concentrations surged to new records.

Even though El Niño conditions in the picture for significant portions of 2015 and 2016, Schmidt says it only made minor contributions to overall global temperature changes.

“2016 is remarkably the third record year in a row in this series”. That might not sound like a lot, but on a global scale that’s a huge shift. However, El Nino can not explain most of this warming. Indeed, El Nino has subsided.

Florida had its second warmest year on record, according to Florida Climate Center’s annual climate summary, which was released on Tuesday.

– Averaged land surface temperature was the highest on record.

Temperature deviations from the 1951-1980 average by decade through 2016.

The Earth saw its warmest year on record in 2016, the third year in a row that the average surface temperature reached a new high, federal officials said Wednesday. “Warming (is) almost everywhere”. We have also broken sea ice minimum records in the Arctic and Antarctic. Spikes in fires from the heat. You’ve heard the story – the polar ice caps will melt, seas will rise, and New York City, among numerous world’s great cities, will sink under water.