2022 tied as fifth-warmest on record: NASA

The average surface temperature for Earth during 2022 tied with 2015 as the fifth-warmest on record, NASA found in an analysis. 

The agency said in a press release on Thursday that global temperatures during last year were 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit above its average for its baseline period of 1951 to 1980. The past nine years have also been the warmest since modern recording of temperatures began in 1880. 

“This warming trend is alarming,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in the release. “Our warming climate is already making a mark: Forest fires are intensifying; hurricanes are getting stronger; droughts are wreaking havoc and sea levels are rising.” 

Earth in 2022 was about 2 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the average temperature of the late 1800s. 

A separate, independent analysis from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found that the global average temperature during 2022 was the sixth-highest since 1880. NOAA uses most of the same data as NASA but uses a baseline period of 1901 to 2000 and a different methodology. 

NASA reported that human-driven greenhouse gas emissions have returned to their levels from before the COVID-19 pandemic after they briefly dropped in 2020 as many normal activities paused. Carbon dioxide emissions were the highest they have ever been in 2022. 

“The reason for the warming trend is that human activities continue to pump enormous amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and the long-term planetary impacts will also continue,” said Gavin Schmidt, the director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies. 

The Arctic region has continuously been the area most affected by the rising temperatures and has experienced almost four times the global average for warming trends. 

NASA noted in the release that communities throughout the world have faced intense rainfall and tropical storms, severe droughts and worse storm surges as a result of a warmer atmosphere and ocean. 

The agency also estimates that the La Niña conditions in the Pacific Ocean, in which large parts of the ocean have unusually cold temperatures, might have lowered the global average temperature by 0.11 degrees Fahrenheit from what it would have been with more normal ocean temperatures. 

NASA conducted its analysis based on data that weather stations, Antarctic research stations and instruments mounted on ships and ocean buoys have collected.