NOAA News on Climate: 2016 marks three consecutive years of record warmth for the globe

Posted on January 18, 2017

Courtesy of NOAA News

With a boost from El Nino, 2016 began with a bang. For eight consecutive months, January to August, the globe experienced record warm heat. With this as a catalyst, the 2016 globally averaged surface temperature ended as the highest since record keeping began in 1880, according to scientists from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

The average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces in 2016 was 58.69 degrees F or 1.69 degrees F above the 20th century average. This surpassed last year’s record by 0.07 degrees F. Since the start of the 21st century, the annual global temperature record has been broken five times (2005, 2010, 2014, 2015, and 2016).

Despite the cooling influence of a weak La Nina in the latter part of the year, the year ended with the third warmest December on record for the globe, with an average temperature 1.42 degrees F above the 20th century average.

In a separate analysis of global temperature data released at the same time, scientists from NASA also found 2016 to be the warmest year on record.  

Click here for FULL Article

More Information:
Visit the December and 2016 reports, and visualization at Climate.gov.

NOAA Media contacts:

Brady Phillips, 202-407-1298
John Leslie, 301-713-0214