2017 was 2nd-warmest across the globe since 1880, NASA says

Last year, was the second warmest since scientists began keeping reliable record in 1880, according to a study by NASA.

Earth’s globally averaged surface temperatures in 2017 were 0.90 C warmer than the 1951 to 1980 mean, according to scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York.

That is second only to global temperatures in 2016.

In a separate, independent analysis, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) concluded that 2017 was the third-warmest year in their record, but not by much.

The minor difference in rankings is due to the different methods used by the two agencies to analyze global temperatures, although over the long-term the agencies’ records remain in strong agreement, officials at NASA said.

Both analyses show that the five warmest years on record all have taken place since 2010.

However, unlike the past two years, Earth’s average temperature in 2017 was not influenced by the warming effect of an El Nino, say scientists from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

“Despite colder than average temperatures in any one part of the world, temperatures over the planet as a whole continue the rapid warming trend we’ve seen over the last 40 years,” GISS Director Gavin Schmidt said in a statement.

The planet’s average surface temperature has risen a little more than 1 C during the last century, according to NASA’s analysis, which concludes that the change is driven largely by increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere.

“Seventeen of the 18 warmest years on record have all been during this century, and the degree of warming during the past three years has been exceptional,” Petteri Taalas, Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization, said in a statement.

“Arctic warmth has been especially pronounced, and this will have profound and long-lasting repercussions on sea levels, and on weather patterns in other parts of the world.”

Last year was the third consecutive year in which global temperatures were more than 1 C above late nineteenth-century levels, NASA said.

2017 also marked the 41st consecutive year (since 1977) with global land and ocean temperatures at least nominally above the 20th-century average, according to NOAA.

The warming is having an impact on the extent of sea ice in polar regions.

Sea ice extent (coverage) at the poles remained low throughout last year. Antarctica had a record-low extent in 2017, while the Arctic had its second-lowest ice coverage on record, NOAA said.

With files from NASA and NOAA