NASA ranks 2022 as 5th warmest year, NOAA says 6th highest since 1880

NASA said earth’s average surface temperature in 2022 tied with 2015 as the fifth warmest year on record and the situation is “alarming”. However, another study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) termed 2022 as the sixth highest since 1880.

The global temperatures in 2022 were 1.6-degree Fahrenheit (0.89-degree Celsius) above the average for NASA’s baseline period (1951-1980), according to researchers at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York.

“This warming trend is alarming. Our warming climate is already making a mark: Forest fires are intensifying; hurricanes are getting stronger; droughts are wreaking havoc and sea levels are rising,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

The past nine years have been the warmest since modern record-keeping began in 1880 and the Earth in 2022 was about 2-degree Fahrenheit (or about 1.11-degree Celsius) warmer than the late 19th century average.

“NASA is deepening our commitment to do our part in addressing climate change. Our Earth System Observatory will provide state-of-the-art data to support our climate modelling, analysis and predictions to help humanity confront our planet’s changing climate,” Nelson explained.

Human-driven greenhouse gas emissions have rebounded following a short-lived dip in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, said NASA scientists. Overall, scientists determined that carbon dioxide emissions were the highest on record in 2022.

NASA also identified some super-emitters of methane using the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation instrument that was launched to the International Space Station last year. (Read this story here)

“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,” said Gavin Schmidt, Director of GISS, NASA’s leading centre for climate modelling.

NOAA says 6th warmest year

However, NOAA has on record said the year 2022 was the warmest year on record since 1880.

The planet continued its warming trend in 2022, with last year ranking as the sixth-warmest year on record since 1880, said a report by scientists from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

Climate by the numbers

The report said the Earth’s average land and ocean surface temperature in 2022 was 1.55 degrees F (0.86 of a degree C) above the 20^th-century average of 57.0 degrees F (13.9 degrees C) — the sixth highest among all years in the 1880-2022 record.

The report notes that 2022 also marked the 46th-consecutive year (since 1977) with global temperatures rising above the 20th-century average. The 10-warmest years on record have all occurred since 2010, with the last nine years (2014-2022) among the 10-warmest years.

The 2022 Northern Hemisphere surface temperature was also the sixth highest in the 143-year record at 1.98 degrees F (1.10 degrees C) above average. The Southern Hemisphere surface temperature for 2022 was the seventh highest on record at 1.10 degrees F (0.61 of a degree C) above average, said the report.

2022 Events Behind Warming Climate

• Global ocean heat content (OHC) hit a record high: The upper ocean heat content, which addresses the amount of heat stored in the upper 2,000 meters of the ocean, was record high in 2022, surpassing the previous record set in 2021. The four highest OHCs have all occurred in the last four years (2019-2022).
• Polar sea ice ran low: The 2022 annual Antarctic sea ice extent (coverage) was at a near-record low at 4.09 million square miles. Only the year 1987 had a smaller annual extent. During 2022, each month had an extent that ranked among the five smallest for their respective months, while the months of February, June, July and August had their lowest monthly extent on record.

In the Arctic, the average annual sea ice extent was approximately 4.13 million square miles — the 11th-smallest annual average sea ice extent in the 1979-2022 record, according to data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

• Global tropical cyclones were near average: A total of 88 named storms occurred across the globe in 2022, which was near the 1991-2020 average. Of those, 40 reached tropical cyclone strength (winds of 74 mph or higher) and 17 reached major tropical cyclone strength (winds of 111 mph or higher). The global accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) — an integrated metric of the strength, frequency and duration of tropical storms — was the fourth lowest since 1981.
• December 2022 was warm: The average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces in December was 1.44 degrees F (0.80 of a degree C) above the 20th-century average. This ranks as the eighth-warmest December in the 143-year NOAA record.

Regionally, Africa tied 2016 for its second-warmest December on record. South America’s December ranked fourth warmest on record, while Europe saw its 10th warmest. Although North America and Asia both had an above-average December temperature, neither ranked among the 20 warmest on record.