Skip to content
NOWCAST Pittsburgh's Action News 4 at 11pm Sunday
Watch on Demand
Advertisement

Data from NASA shows 2022 was fifth warmest year on record

Trends continue to show warming temperatures across world

Data from NASA shows 2022 was fifth warmest year on record

Trends continue to show warming temperatures across world

THESE TRENDS AND SHOWS US WHAT THIS COULD MEAN IN THE YEARS TO COME. NEW NASSAR DATA SHOWS 2022 REACHED A NEW RECORD HIGH FOR CO2 EMISSIONS AND THE YEAR FINISHED 1.6 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT ABOVE THE AVERAGE. FROM 1951 TO 1980. IT ALSO TIED FOR 2015 FOR THE FIFTH WARMEST YEAR ON RECORD AND THE PAST NINE YEARS HAVE BEEN WARMEST IN RECORDED HISTORY. THAT STATISTIC OF THE NINE MOST RECENT YEARS BEING ONE NINE WARMEST YEAR ON RECORD. THAT’S INCREDIBLY STRIKING. DR. LESLIE ORT, A CLIMATE SCIENTIST FOR NASA, SAYS THIS RAMP UP OF TEMPERATURES IS NOT STRICTLY FROM NATURAL VARIABILITY. WE KNOW THAT CLIMATE CHANGE IS CAUSED BY GREENHOUSE GASES EMITTED FROM HUMAN ACTIVITIES. 2022 WAS ANOTHER IN A SERIES OF YEARS WITH A LA NINA INFLUENCE, A PATTERN THAT TYPICALLY LEADS TO COOLER GLOBAL AIR TEMPERATURES DUE TO COOLER THAN NORMAL OCEAN SURFACE WATER. BUT IT WAS STILL EXCEPTIONALLY WARM. AMONG LA NINA YEARS. THIS WAS THE WARMEST LA NINA YEAR ON RECORD, SO BASICALLY THE WARMEST OF THE COOL YEARS. NASA COLLECTS TEMPERATURE DATA FROM THOUSANDS OF SURFACE WEATHER STATIONS ACROSS THE GLOBE, AND THEY USE SATELLITE DATA TO MEASURE THINGS LIKE STORM DEVELOPMENT AND HOW FIRES OR HURRICANES IMPACT COMMUNITIES. THOSE ARE SOME OF THE KINDS OF DATA SETS THAT WE GET FROM SATELLITES THAT TELL US A WHOLE LOT MORE THAN JUST THE TEMPERATURE. BUT TELL US HOW THAT TEMPERATURE CHANGE ACTUALLY AFFECTS EVERYONE AROUND THE WORLD. THE NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION ALSO KEEPS RECORDS USING SURFACE STATION DATA AND ANALYZES THOSE OBSERVATIONS INDEPENDENTLY, USING THEIR OWN METHODS. THEIR 2022 SUMMARY FOUND THAT GLOBAL OCEAN HEAT CONTENT OR HEAT MEASURED WITHIN 2000 METERS OF DEPTH WAS AT A NEW RECORD HIGH THIS PAST DECEMBER, ALSO RANKED EIGHTH WARMEST ON RECORD. HERE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE, THE TEMPERATURE HAS RISEN MORE THAN THREE DEGREES SINCE THE START OF THE 20TH CENTURY. WITH THE FASTEST WARMING OCCURRING IN WINTER, WHICH HAS INCREASED BY OVER FOUR DEGREES SINCE 1900. THIS CHART SHOWS THE WARMING TREND FOR THE GRANITE STATE AND THE FUTURE PROJECTIONS UNDER DIFFERENT SCENARIOS. IT’S STILL HEADED UPWARDS, BUT THE RATE OF FUTURE WARMING WILL DEPEND ON OUR RATE OF EMISSIONS. NOAH ALSO PROJECTS AND INCREASE IN ANNUAL PRECIPITATION FOR NEW HAMPSHIRE, ESPECIALLY DURING THE WINTER. THIS GRAPH SHOWS THAT WITH HIGHER EMISSIONS, TOTAL PRECIPITATION MAY BE 10 TO 15% MORE BY THE MID 21ST CENTURY, COMPARED TO THE LATE 1900S. REGARDLESS OF METHODOLOGY OR WHO IS COLLECTING THE DATA, THE END RESULTS AND OVERALL FINDINGS ARE THE SAME. YEAR AFTER YEAR, SCIENTISTS AT MULTIPLE AGENCIES AND REALLY EVEN AGENCIES ACROSS THE WORLD LOOK AT THE SAME DATA AND VERIFY EACH OTHER’S CONCLUSIONS. SO THAT’S ONE OF THE WAYS THAT WE HAVE A LOT OF CONFIDENCE IN OUR FINDINGS FOR FORECASTING OUR
Advertisement
Data from NASA shows 2022 was fifth warmest year on record

Trends continue to show warming temperatures across world

New data from NASA shows that temperatures are on the rise worldwide.According to NASA, 2022 reached a new record high for carbon dioxide emissions, and the year finished 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit above the average from 1951 to 1980. It also tied with 2015 as the fifth warmest year on record."That statistic of the nine most recent years being nine warmest years on record, that's incredibly striking," said Lesley Ott, a climate scientist for NASA.Ott said the ramping up of temperatures is not simply natural variability. "We know that climate change is caused by greenhouse gases emitted from human activities," she said.In 2022, global climate was affected by the weather pattern known as La Niña, which typically leads to cooler global air temperatures because of cooler than normal ocean surface water, but the year was still exceptionally warm."Even among La Niña years, this was the warmest La Niña year on record, so basically the warmest of the cool years," Ott said.NASA collects temperature data from thousands of surface weather stations across the globe and uses satellite data to measure things such as storm development and how fires or hurricanes affect communities."Those are some of the kinds of data sets that we get from satellites that tell us a whole lot more than just the temperature, but tell us how that temperature change actually affects everyone around the world," Ott said.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also keeps records using surface station data and analyzes those observations independently, using its own methods.Its 2022 summary found that global ocean heat content, or heat measured within 2,000 meters of depth, was at a new record high.This past December also ranked as the eighth warmest December on record.In New Hampshire, the temperature has risen more than 3 degrees since the start of the 20th century, with the fastest warming occurring in winter, which has warmed by more than 4 degrees since 1900. "Year after year, scientists at multiple agencies and really even agencies across the world look at the same data and verify each other's conclusions," Ott said. "So that's one of the ways that we have a lot of confidence in our findings."

New data from NASA shows that temperatures are on the rise worldwide.

According to NASA, 2022 reached a new record high for carbon dioxide emissions, and the year finished 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit above the average from 1951 to 1980. It also tied with 2015 as the fifth warmest year on record.

Advertisement

"That statistic of the nine most recent years being nine warmest years on record, that's incredibly striking," said Lesley Ott, a climate scientist for NASA.

Ott said the ramping up of temperatures is not simply natural variability.

"We know that climate change is caused by greenhouse gases emitted from human activities," she said.

In 2022, global climate was affected by the weather pattern known as La Niña, which typically leads to cooler global air temperatures because of cooler than normal ocean surface water, but the year was still exceptionally warm.

"Even among La Niña years, this was the warmest La Niña year on record, so basically the warmest of the cool years," Ott said.

NASA collects temperature data from thousands of surface weather stations across the globe and uses satellite data to measure things such as storm development and how fires or hurricanes affect communities.

"Those are some of the kinds of data sets that we get from satellites that tell us a whole lot more than just the temperature, but tell us how that temperature change actually affects everyone around the world," Ott said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also keeps records using surface station data and analyzes those observations independently, using its own methods.

Its 2022 summary found that global ocean heat content, or heat measured within 2,000 meters of depth, was at a new record high.

This past December also ranked as the eighth warmest December on record.

In New Hampshire, the temperature has risen more than 3 degrees since the start of the 20th century, with the fastest warming occurring in winter, which has warmed by more than 4 degrees since 1900.

"Year after year, scientists at multiple agencies and really even agencies across the world look at the same data and verify each other's conclusions," Ott said. "So that's one of the ways that we have a lot of confidence in our findings."