2016 Was Officially the Hottest Year on Record
Government scientists say the Earth sizzled to a third straight heat record last year. They mostly blame man-made global warming (with help from a natural El Nino, which has since disappeared) - just days before Donald Trump, who has called climate change a hoax created by the Chinese, is set to take office.
The figures announced Wednesday come from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which measure global temperatures in slightly different ways. They said last year passed 2015 as the hottest year on record.
NOAA calculated that the average global temperature last year was 58.69 degrees (14.84 degrees Celsius) - beating the previous year by .07 degrees (.04 Celsius).
NASA's figures include more of the Arctic, which was warmer than usual. The agency said last year was .22 degrees (.12 degrees Celsius) warmer than 2015.
“A single warm year is something of a curiosity,” said Deke Arndt, chief of global climate monitoring for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told The New York Times. “It’s really the trend, and the fact that we’re punching at the ceiling every year now, that is the real indicator that we’re undergoing big changes.”
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