2019 just became the second hottest year in history since recordkeeping began in 1880, according to data released by NASA. The average temperature of 2019 is 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit or 0.98 degrees Celsius higher than the average temperature between 1951 and 1980.
Globally, only the year 2016 has a lower average temperature than 2019. The past five years have been the warmest of the last 140 years.
NASA’s director of Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) Gavin Schmidt said the Earth past the point of no return in 2015. The overall trend shows the warming of the planet is persistent. It is driven by increasing levels of greenhouse gases.
NASA’s result uses measurements from 20,000 weather stations, ship-and buoy-based observations of sea surface temperatures.
