CB Bureau2019 was the second warmest year and the past decade the hottest on record, as per analysis by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The warmest year on record is 2016.
2019 was also the 43rd consecutive year of global land and ocean temperatures rising above average. This means that efforts to mitigate global warming effects are falling far short of required results.
Data showed that in 2019 the global average surface temperatures were nearly 1 degree Celsius higher than the average from the middle of last century and only a small fraction of a degree lower (0.04 degree Celsius) than the average in 2016. This is mostly attributable to emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases from fossil fuels. The NOAA has records of global temperatures since the past 140 years.
This is a familiar pattern by now – since the 1960s, each decade has been significantly warmer than the previous one. The five hottest years ever have occurred during the second half of the 2010s, with the past five years being the five warmest on record. Several months in 2019 had record average temperatures. July was the hottest month ever, averaging 0.04 degree Celsius higher than July 2016.
Both NASA and NOAA did independent analyses on the same temperature data, which is gathered at sea from ships and buoys and on land from thousands of observing stations of government meteorological agencies. The studies take into account possible errors and contribution of natural factors. The overall findings of both studies are the same which also concurs with the results of other agencies in other parts of the world such as the Copernicus Climate Change Service, an intergovernmental agency supported by the European Union and the World Meteorological Organization.