Analysis: Last month ‘marginally’ the warmest January recorded

Last month was “marginally” the warmest January on record, according to an analysis released Tuesday. 

The European Union-affiliated Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) found that January 2020’s global temperatures were “on par” with January 2016, which was previously the warmest January recorded. 

“The global temperature was warmer than any previous January in the data record, but only marginally so (by 0.03°C) in the case of January 2016,” said a C3S statement. 

The month was also 0.77 degrees Celsius warmer than the average January from 1981 to 2010, according to C3S. 

In Europe, January was about 0.2 degrees Celsius warmer than the past warmest January in 2007, the group found.

The year 2019 was the second-warmest ever globally, behind just 2016, according to C3S. This finding matched data from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.