2016 Was The Warmest Year On Record... Again

This won't come as much of a shocker to most of you, but NASA and NOAA have announced that 2016 was the warmest year on record. Those of you who follow such news will know that 2016 is breaking a record set by 2015, which itself broke a record set by 2014. In other words, 2016 was the third year in a row to set surface temperature records.

That isn't good news. NASA's data says that global surface temperatures were "1.78 degrees Fahrenheit (0.99 degrees Celsius) warmer than the mid-20th century mean." What's worse is that average surface temperatures have risen around 2.0 degrees Fahrenheit since record keeping began in the late 19th century.

This change, NASA says, is largely due to "increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere." Not only was 2016 one of the warmest years on record, but it also held eight of the warmest months on record. It sounds like with the exception of June, the warmest months on record all come from either 2015 or 2016.

NASA has compiled its surface temperature data in the video you see below. The video goes all the way back to 1880, and shows the increase in surface temperatures throughout the years before ending in 2016. It's rather alarming to see the temperatures shift in less than a minute, but then again, nothing about this is supposed to be comforting. Have a look:

NASA points out that even though 2016 was the warmest year so far, that wasn't the case in every region on Earth. It was the case in the Arctic, though, which is particularly worrying given the amount of ice melt we saw throughout the year. You can read the full report from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies by clicking on the source link below.

SOURCE: NASA