2020 ties 2016 as Earth’s warmest year

Sounds like a broken record after warmest decade ever on record

This color-coded map shows changing global surface temperature anomalies. Higher than normal temperatures are shown in red and lower than normal temperatures in blue. (NOAA, NOAA)

A European climate center revealed that globally 2020 was tied with the previous warmest year -- 2016 -- making it the sixth in a series of exceptionally warm years starting in 2015.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service also said the period from 2011-2020 was the warmest decade ever recorded using temperature datasets from five international databases including NOAA in the United States.

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In addition, NOAA said Friday the average temperature across the contiguous U.S. in 2020 was 54.4 degrees F (2.4 degrees above the 20th century average), making 2020 the fifth warmest year on record.

All five-warmest years in the U.S. have occurred since 2012, according to NOAA scientists from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.

Ten states across the Southwest, Southeast and East Coast had their second-warmest year on record. There were no areas of below-average annual temperatures observed across the lower 48 states during 2020.

Meanwhile, Europe saw its warmest year on record, 0.4°C warmer than 2019, which was previously the warmest year.

Arctic sea ice tied for third lowest in December, while down south in the Antarctic, ice levels in July and October were the lowest on record for each month.

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Increasing levels of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide in the atmosphere due to human activities are a major driver of climate change.

NOAA/NASA is expected to release its global analyses next Thursday.


About the Author:

After covering the weather from every corner of Florida and doing marine research in the Gulf, Mark Collins settled in Jacksonville to forecast weather for The First Coast.