A year forever defined by COVID-19 and a controversial U.S. presidential election has added another item to its resume — second-hottest year on record.
According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists, 2020 nearly surpassed 2016 as the hottest year ever recorded.
Last year was the second straight in which the Earth experienced near-record heat, providing more evidence of the effects of global warming, per Axios.
In 2020, land and ocean surface temperatures averaged 1.76 degree Fahrenheit above the 20th century average, and just 0.04 degree cooler than in 2016.
The NOAA scientists also said oceans were "exceptionally warm" last year, with record-high sea surface temperatures logged across parts of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, per NBC News.
Last year also was the hottest ever recorded for the Northern Hemisphere, which saw temperatures at 2.3 degrees above the 20th century average.
The new data lowers 2019 to the third-hottest year on record. Average temperature that year was 1.71 degree above the 20th century average.
Earth's seven warmest years all have occurred since 2014, according to NOAA.
"The last seven years have been the warmest seven years on record, typifying the ongoing and dramatic warming trend," Gavin Schmidt, a climate scientist at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said in a statement. "Whether one year is a record or not is not really that important — the important things are long-term trends. With these trends, and as the human impact on the climate increases, we have to expect that records will continue to be broken."
The NOAA analysis was announced one week following a study by the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service, which said 2020 tied 2016 for the hottest year on record.
NOAA has kept temperature records since 1880.
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