2016 or 2020- Which Year was the Warmest?
According to NASA, 2020 tied with the year 2016 was the warmest year on record. As per the scientists at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) of NASA, globally averaged temperature in 2020 was 1.02 degrees Celsius (1.84 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the baseline 1951-1980 mean.
Key Points
- 2020 was the warmest year because of climate change, droughts, intense wildfires, deadly heatwaves, and other environmental disasters across the world.
- The year was warmest despite La Nina occurred in the second half of the year.
Other Analysis
- As per the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2020 was the second-warmest year after 2016.
- The study used the baseline of 1901-2000.
- As per the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), 2020 was among the three warmest years from the year 2015.
- WMO pointed out that 2016, 2019, and 2020 were among the top three warmest years since 2015.
- WMO also designated 2011-2020 as the warmest decade on record.
- As per WMO, the average global temperature in the year 2020 was around 14.9 degrees Celsius.
- WMO is a UN specialized agency established in the year 1950 and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
La Nina
It is a climate pattern occurring in the Equatorial Pacific that characterizes cold ocean temperature. El Nino is the warmer counterpart of La Nina.