This color-coded map shows the changing global surface temperature anomalies from 1880 to 2020.
Estimates from NASA and the Copernicus service on climate change indicate that the year 2020 ended being, along with 2016, the warmest in recorded history. Specifically, in 2020 the global average temperature was approximately 14.9 ° C, which indicates 1.02 ° C higher than pre-industrial levels (1850-1900).
Furthermore, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the decade from 2011 to 2020 was the warmest on record, and developed in the context of a persistent, long-term trend of climate change. The six warmest years have all occurred since 2015, with 2016, 2019 and 2020 occupying the top three places. On the other hand, although in 2016 there was an intense warming episode due to the El Niño phenomenon, in 2020 an episode of La Niña took place, which produces a temporary cooling that did not prevent, however, the high average temperatures with those that closed the year. It is noteworthy that the temperatures of 2020 were practically on par with those of 2016, the year in which one of the most intense El Niño warming episodes was recorded. “This clear global indication of climate change caused by human activities is today as powerful as the force of nature itself,” said WMO Secretary General Petteri Taalas on the occasion of the presentation of this report.
The warmest year, also in Spain
In our country, data from the State Meteorological Agency, dependent on the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, also indicate that 2020 was the warmest year since records have been had, in this case since 1961. Their data is tied with the values of 2017, with an average anomaly in mainland Spain of 1 ° C. In turn, the Copernicus Climate Change Service defined 2020 as the warmest year in Europe, 0.4 ° C above the values of the previous record corresponding to 2019.
Sustained heat and forest fires in Siberia, a reduced extent of sea ice in the Arctic, and a record hurricane season in the Atlantic, were some of the most prominent climatic features of 2020.
Video: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio. Data from Robert B. Schmunk (NASA / GSFC GISS).
