Earth Had Its Second-Warmest Year on Record in 2019, NOAA and NASA Say

Chris DolcePublished: January 15, 2020

Earth had its second-warmest year on record in 2019, marking an unprecedented run of six consecutive years where global temperatures were the highest on record, according to a NOAA report released Wednesday.

The average global temperature across all of Earth's land and ocean surfaces was 0.95 degrees Celsius above the long-term average, NOAA said. That may not seem far above average, but when it comes to global temperatures, it's a significant margin.

Earth's six warmest years on record all occurred from 2014 through 2019.

The six warmest years in NOAA's 139-year database have all occurred since 2014. The warmest year globally was in 2016.

Most of the Earth had above-average temperatures last year, as the various shadings in red show in the image below. Only a few areas were cooler than average, including the north-central United States.

Temperatures compared to average for the Earth in 2019. Areas in darkest red were record warm in 2019.

The globe hasn't had a cooler-than-average year since 1976 in NOAA's database, which is a stretch of 43 consecutive warm years. All of the 20 warmest years have occurred since 1998, and 19 of those years have come this century.

Four other agencies also confirmed 2019 was among the top three hottest years:

-NASA: second-warmest year

-Japanese Meteorological Agency: tied with 2015 as the second-warmest year

-Copernicus Climate Change Services: second-warmest year

-U.K. Met Office: third-warmest year

Small differences in rankings between these agencies is due to differences in how temperatures are analyzed.

Ultimately, what's most important is not whether a given month is a fraction of a degree warmer or colder; rather, it's the overall trend, which continues its upward climb since the late 1970s.

The red bars show warmer than average years, and blue bars are cooler than average years. All of Earth's years since the late-1970s have been warmer than average.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.