ROANOKE, Va – Independent research performed by NOAA and NASA shows that the globe’s surface temperatures were the second-warmest on record in 2019. This data goes back to the late 1800s.
According to NASA, the last five years have been the warmest globally out of the last 140 years. The average temperature now is more than 2°F higher than what it was when data collecting began in the pre-industrial time.
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Taken directly from NASA’s press release sent on Wednesday, “Using climate models and statistical analysis of global temperature data, scientists have concluded that this increase mostly has been driven by increased emissions into the atmosphere of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases produced by human activities.”
Now, the weather may still vary from place to place. For instance, NASA concluded that 2019 was the 34th-warmest year on record for the United States, which is warmer than average. However, it was the second-wettest year on record for the nation with Alaska, Georgia and North Carolina experiencing their warmest year on record.
On a local level, Your Local Weather Authority found that 2019 was the second-warmest on record in Roanoke but wasn’t near record territory in Lynchburg or Southside. When looking at the top 10 warmest years on record, five of them happened in the 2010s in the Roanoke Valley.
Below is a snapshot of that raw data compiled here:
The rapid and continuous warming of the earth’s atmosphere as a whole has been linked to increases in extreme weather events across the globe. These effects have been seen worldwide, according to Climate Central. All-time record heat was felt at times in parts of Europe this past year, with intense heat and dry weather being partially responsible for wildfires in California, Alaska, Siberia, Indonesia and Australia.
You can find out more about the analyses performed by both NASA and NOAA scientists by clicking here.