2020 was the hottest year on record • Earth.com

2020 was the hottest year on record

01-19-2021


Today’s Video of the Day from NASA Goddard reveals that 2020 was essentially the single hottest year on record. 

According to scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York, the year’s globally averaged temperature was 1.84 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the baseline 1951-1980 average 

The scientists determined that 2020 was warmer than 2016 by such a small margin that the two are now effectively tied as the hottest years observed since modern record-keeping began. 

“The last seven years have been the warmest seven years on record, typifying the ongoing and dramatic warming trend,” said GISS Director Gavin Schmidt. “Whether one year is a record or not is not really that important – the important things are long-term trends. With these trends, and as the human impact on the climate increases, we have to expect that records will continue to be broken.”

The 2020 GISS values represent surface temperatures that were averaged over the whole globe and throughout the entire year. According to NOAA, parts of the continental United States experienced record high temperatures in 2020, while others did not.

Video Credit: NASA Goddard 

By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer

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