2018 Was the Fourth Warmest Year on Record
A warmer climate contributes to melting polar ice and mountain glaciers, rising sea levels, more severe droughts, longer fire seasons.
NASA and NOAA work together to study the temperature from weather stations, ships
Credits:
Kathryn Mersmann (USRA): Lead Producer
Ellen T. Gray (ADNET Systems Inc.): Lead Writer
Patrick Lynch (NASA/GSFC): Lead Public Affairs Officer
Gavin A. Schmidt (NASA/GSFC GISS): Lead Scientist
Global Temperature Anomalies from 1880 to 2017
Continuing the planet’s long-term warming trend, globally averaged temperatures in 2017
These raw measurements are analyzed using an algorithm that considers the varied spacing of temperature stations around the globe and urban heating effects that could skew the conclusions. These calculations produce the global average temperature deviations from the baseline period of 1951 to 1980. The full 2017 surface temperature data set and the complete methodology used to make the temperature calculation are available
GISS is a laboratory within the Earth Sciences Division of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The laboratory is affiliated with Columbia University’s Earth Institute and School of Engineering and Applied Science in New York. NASA uses the unique vantage point of space to better understand Earth as an interconnected system. The agency also uses airborne and ground-based
NASA shares this knowledge with the global community and works with institutions in the United States and around the world that contribute to understanding and protecting our home planet.
This color-coded map in Robinson projection displays a progression of changing global surface temperature anomalies from 1880 through 2017. Higher than normal temperatures are shown in red and lower
Visualizers: Kel Elkins (lead), Lori Perkins