Last year was the hottest in Earth’s recorded history, NASA says
Last year was the planet’s hottest in recorded history, NASA announced Friday, marking two years in a row that global temperatures have shattered records.
The agency’s analysis found that 2024 was hotter than any year since at least 1880. Previously, 2023 was named the planet’s warmest year on record.
The back-to-back milestones are part of a continued warming trajectory that climate scientists have long warned about and that was predicted in numerous climate models.
“Once again, the temperature record has been shattered — 2024 was the hottest year since record keeping began in 1880,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement. “Between record breaking temperatures and wildfires currently threatening our centers and workforce in California, it has never been more important to understand our changing planet.”
NASA scientists estimated that in 2024, Earth was about 2.65 degrees Fahrenheit (1.47 degrees Celsius) hotter than the average from the mid-19th century — a period from 1850 to 1900.
The new record comes as little surprise after a year beset by extremes. From June 2023 through August 2024, the planet notched 15 consecutive months of monthly temperature records, a trend NASA scientists called an “unprecedented heat streak.”
The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service confirmed the record Friday, announcing that according to its analysis, 2024 was the first full year in which global temperatures exceeded 1.5 degrees C above preindustrial times.
Countries agreed in the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) above preindustrial times to avert the most catastrophic consequences of climate change.
