After performing autonomous analyses , NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) haveboth announcedthat 2016 was the hottest year on record .   This is the first meter in forward-looking story that metric temperatures have broken the previous records for three years in a row .

This is unsurprising if you ’ve follow the month - to - month updates . Eight out of 12 month in   the past year have been the hottest since record start in 1880 . June , October , November , and December were only second to the same months in 2015 .

“ 2016 is unco the third platter year in a row in this series , ” Gavin Schmidt , the music director of NASA ’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies , said in astatement . “ We do n’t expect record years every class , but the ongoing long - term thawing tendency is clear . ”

The satellite ’s median surface temperature has arise by about 0.99 ° C ( 1.78 ° F ) since the mid-20th century   – a   variety that has been brought on   by increased carbon dioxide and nursery gas emission from human bodily function . The temperatures for 2016 were on average0.07   ° C ( 0.13 ° F)higher than for 2015 .

politico with vested interests and egg - mold twitterati might argue about solar shaft of light , a “ hiatus ” , and many other fantasies , but just like snowflakes , their arguments melt easily . Most of the warming has occur in the last 35 years , and 16 out of the 17 hottest class on disc have occur since 2001 .

The year 2015 pick up a dramatic jump in temperature compare to 2014 due to aparticularly hard El Niño , a heating of the tropic Pacific Ocean , which was alive for most of 2015 and continued into the first third of 2016 .

While global averages   have steadily raise , not every region of the satellite has have the same step-up . weather condition , while related to climate , is strike by regional and local condition . Both NASA and NOAA incur that 2016 was the second - warmest class on track record for the contiguous 48 United States , while the Arctic feel its warmest year ever .

NASA and NOAA employ temperature measure from 6,300 weather station , ships , and buoy spread across the surface of the planet . The two agencies use different baselines and different algorithmic program to create a globose average value , but   both measurements show   that the Earth is undeniably make warmer .

While the damage to our planet is real , there ’s still plenty we can do . More and moregovernmentsare investing in renewable resources and even someone can dotheir partto at least reduce their   encroachment .