State of the climate: 2020 ties as warmest year on record

Jan 22, 2021

The Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise ship is seen near floating ice at the Arctic Ocean, September 14, 2020. REUTERS/Natalie Thomas - RC2IYI9889HL

There were record lows in sea ice in Arctic between July and November. Image: REUTERS/Natalie Thomas

Zeke Hausfather

US Analyst, Carbon Brief

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Global average surface temperatures for each year relative preindustrial with their respective uncertainties (width of the curves) from Berkeley Earth. Note that warming is shown here relative to the temperature to the 1850-1900 period. Image: Dr Robert Rohde

surface temperature anomalies shown on a global map

Surface temperature anomalies for 2020 from Berkeley Earth. Note that Berkeley uses a 1951-1980 baseline to calculate anomalies. Image: Berkeley Earth

annual average temperature rankings as shown on a global map

Regions of the world among the five warmest (reds) of five coolest (blues) on record for average annual temperatures in 2020. Figure from Berkeley Earth. Image: Berkeley Earth

a chart showing the increase of ice free conditions in the arctic ocean

Ice free conditions have become more common. Image: Carbon Brief

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