2016 hottest year ‘ever’
Third consecutive year the previous record has been broken, making 2016 the warmest average year since 1800
ACCORDING to data released by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the USA, 2016 was the hottest year on record.
This is the third consecutive year the previous record has been broken, making 2016 the warmest average year since 1800.
The release of data last week confirmed fears that the global climate is on an ever increasing warmer trend.
NOAA reported an average global temperature at around 14.83° Celsius, which sounds odd when you think of Zululand’s scorching summer days.
The average is obtained by a technique NASA scientist James Hansen developed.
Basically, the earth is divided into a massive grid, including the oceans, and the anomalies are compared; such as how much recorded temperatures differ from the averages for each month.
In some places, there will be cooler temperatures than what researchers would consider ‘typical’, while in others the exact opposite would be true.
While the methods of gathering data and the data sources themselves have changed significantly over the 137 years, the recording of global temperatures has been written down, the brains at NASA say they are around 95% certain 2016 was indeed, the warmest year so far.
The NOAA also said that around 10.15 million square kilometres of the Arctic sea ice level is the lowest it has been since 1979.
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