NASA says warming trend in recent years continues

Washington DC - Earth's average surface temperature in 2022 tied with 2015 as the fifth warmest on record, according to an analysis by NASA.

Continuing the planet's long-term warming trend, global temperatures in 2022 were 0.89Cdeg above the average for NASA's baseline period (1951-1980), scientists from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) says.

New Zealand had its hottest year on record in 2022, beating a mark set just a year earlier thanks to a combination of natural weather cycles and manmade global warming.

Analysis of 70 years of data has shown extreme hot days are increasing at a rate faster than average temperature increases across Aotearoa. At the same time, rainfall is decreasing in many areas.

The ongoing warming trend is alarming, NASA says. The planet’s warming climate is already making a mark with forest fires intensifying; hurricanes getting stronger; droughts wreaking havoc and sea levels rising.

NASA is deepening its commitment to do its part in addressing climate change. Their earth system observatory will provide state-of-the-art data to support climate the, analysis and predictions to help humanity confront tour planet's changing climate.

The past nine years have been the warmest years since modern recordkeeping began in 1880. This means Earth in 2022 was about 1.11Cdeg warmer than the late 19th century average.

The reason for the warming trend is that human activities continue to pump enormous amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and the long-term planetary impacts will also continue.

Human-driven greenhouse gas emissions have rebounded following a short-lived dip in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, NASA scientists, as well as international scientists, determined carbon dioxide emissions were the highest on record in 2022.

NASA also identified some super-emitters of methane -- another powerful greenhouse gas -- using the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation instrument that launched to the International Space Station last year.

The Arctic region continues to experience the strongest warming trends close to four times the global average according to GISS research presented at the latest annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, as well as a separate study.

Communities around the world are experiencing impacts scientists see as connected to the warming atmosphere and ocean.

Climate change has intensified rainfall and tropical storms, deepened the severity of droughts, and increased the impact of storm surges.

Last year brought torrential monsoon rains that devastated Pakistan and a persistent megadrought in the U.S. Southwest. In September, Hurricane Ian became one of the strongest and costliest hurricanes to strike the continental US.