Eight of the 12 months of 2016 were the warmest since modern recordkeeping began in 1880, helping to make 2016 the warmest year globally — the third record-setting year in a row, said NASA. “We don’t expect record years every year but the ongoing long-term warming trend is clear,” said Gavin Schmidt, direct of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
Separate analyses by NASA and NOAA agreed on the new record: Globally averaged temperatures were 1.78 degrees F (0.99 degrees C) warmer than the mid-20th century mean temperature. The world’s average surface temperature is roughly 2 degrees F (1.1 degrees C) higher than it was in the late 19th century, “a change driven largely by increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere,” said NASA. “Most of the warming occurred in the past 35 years, with 16 of the 17 warmest years on record occurring since 2001.”
The El Niño weather pattern of 2015-16 increased temperatures 0.2 degrees F (0.12 degrees C) during 2016. Because weather dynamics vary around the world, there are regional differences in temperature. The contiguous 48 U.S. states had the second-warmest year on record while the Arctic had the warmest, “consistent with record low sea ice found in that region for most of the year,” said NASA.