DES MOINES, Iowa — The numbers are in; 2020 was one of Earth's warmest years on record.
According to analysis and data recently released from NASA, the global average surface temperature in 2020 tied with 2016.
NASA scientists say the year's globally averaged temperatures was just shy of 2° warmer than the baseline mean temperature from 1951-1980.
Although 2020 technically exceeded 2016's data by a small amount, the numbers fell within NASA's margin of error of the analysis.
This is why the years are effectively tied for the warmest year on record.
NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies said "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.”
Keeping records of global temperature trends is important to understanding how human activities, particularly greenhouse gas emissions, affect Earth.
Since the industrial revolution, Earth's average temperature has climbed more than 2°F.
This trend is especially concerning, as the Earth experiences a loss of sea ice and ice sheet mass, sea level rise, more extreme heat waves and even shifts or changes in plant and animal habitats.
Experts conclude many different factors and events contribute to Earth's average temperature in any given year.
In 2020, two specific events likely altered the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth's surface, NASA says.
First, the bush fires during the first half of 2020 in Australia burned roughly 46 million acres of land, and released smoke and other particles high into the atmosphere.
These particulates blocked sunlight and likely cooled the atmosphere slightly.
On the other hand, shutdowns related the coronavirus pandemic helped alleviate air pollution for many parts of the globe, likely causing more sunlight to reach the surface, creating some small warming effect.
While the shutdowns had a positive influence on the amount of carbon dioxide emissions globally last year, the total concentrations of carbon dioxide continued to increase.
As scientists explain, the primary source of year-to-year variability in global temperatures occurs as a result of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a naturally occurring cycle of heat exchange between the ocean and atmosphere.
It is important to recognize not every region on Earth experiences similar amounts of warming, even during a record year.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says parts of the continental United States experienced record high temperatures during 2020, but other areas did not.
Parts of the globe are warming faster than others, according to experts.
The planet's warming trends are most pronounced in the Arctic region, where sea ice's annual minimum area is declining by about 13% every 10 years.
This is problematic because the region becomes less reflective over time, meaning more sunlight is absorbed by the oceans, as a result of varying albedo.
Climatologists refer to this as Arctic amplification, further driving sea ice loss, sea level rise, ice sheet melt, and permafrost melt, to name a few.