2019 was 2nd hottest year on record for Earth say NOAA, NASA
NOAA finds ocean heat content was the highest in recorded history
January 15, 2020
Earth’s warming trend continued in 2019, making it the second-hottest year in NOAA’s 140-year climate record just behind 2016.
The world’s five warmest years have all occurred since 2015 with nine of the 10 warmest years occurring since 2005, according to scientists from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).
It was also the 43rd consecutive year with global land and ocean temperatures, at least nominally, above average.
The average temperature across the globe in 2019 was 1.71 degrees F (0.95 of a degree C) above the 20th-century average and just 0.07 of a degree F (0.04 of a degree C) cooler than the 2016 record.
This animation shows monthly global temperatures compared to the 1981-2010 average for January through December 2019. The last slide shows the departure from average for the entire year. (NOAA NCEI and NOAA Climate.gov)
Ocean heat content, which describes the amount of heat stored in the upper-levels of the ocean, was the highest ever recorded. High ocean-heat content can contribute to sea-level rise.
2019 as ranked by other scientific organizations
NASA scientists, who conducted a separate but similar analysis, concurred with NOAA’s ranking. NASA also found that 2010-2019 was the hottest decade ever recorded.
Scientists from the United Kingdom Met Office determined that 2019 was one of the top-three hottest years on record, and the World Meteorological Organizationoffsite link also ranked 2019 second warmest for the globe.
A map of the world noting some of the most significant weather climate events of 2019. For more details, see the bullets below in this story and at http://bit.ly/Global201912.
