NASA Report: 2016 Warmest Year on Record

Last year was the hottest ever recorded, making this the third record-setting year in a row, according to The Washington Post. 

In 2016, The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered the average surface temperature as 0.07 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the previous year. Additionally, the eight months between January and August were each the warmest recorded since 1880.

The average surface temperature in the 20th century was 57 degrees Fahrenheit. In 2016 it was 58.69 degrees.

NASA declared 2016 the warmest year yet as well, with "greater than 95 percent certainty," according to their report, which said the temperature rose 0.22 degrees Fahrenheit last year.

Gavin Schmidt, the director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said 2016 "is remarkably the third record year in a row in this series," in a statement, according to the Post. "We don't expect record years every year, but the ongoing long-term warming trend is clear."

Schmidt cites alternate methods of determining Arctic warming as the cause for NASA's and NOAA's large difference in temperature increase last year, explaining that the two reports don't differ all that much.

"The warming in the Arctic has really been exceptional, and what you decide to do when you're interpolating across the Arctic, makes a difference," Schmidt said.

"Getting hung up on the exact nature of the records is interesting, and there's lots of technical work that can be done there, but the main take home response there is that the trends we've been seeing since the 1970s are continuing and have not paused in any way," he added.

• 2016 Set to Be Hottest Year on Record
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