2018 Was the Fourth Warmest Year In History

Researchers say that 2018 is the fourth warmest year on record, according to a Washington Post report.

“2018 is consistent with the long term warming trend,” Zeke Hausfather, a research scientist with Berkeley Earth, said of his findings. “It’s significantly warmer than any of the years before 2015. There’s still this big bump up after 2014, and 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 are all in a class of their own.”

A strong El Nino event made 2016 the warmest year on land and ocean in history.

Other researchers are echoing these findings. Copernicus Climate Change Service, a European Union body, also agrees that 2018 is the fourth warmest year on record. Kevin Cowtan, a researcher at the University of York, says 2018 is most likely the fourth warmest but doesn’t have a complete set of data due to the U.S. government shutdown.

Last year, both NASA and NOAA released their annual temperature findings on January 18, but the government shutdown has seen that date come and go. Hausfather, who says he had planned a coordinated release of the findings with both U.S. agencies, decided to release Berkeley Earth’s finding independently.

Even though NASA has been mum on the temps in last few weeks, the agencies own temperature keeper Gavin Schmidt tweeted back in October that 2018 would be the fourth warmest on record.

With latest update from @NASAGISS, 2018 is almost guaranteed to be the 4th warmest year in the record, and likely to be (~76%) the 4th year in a row more than 1ºC above the late 19th Century. (1ºC = 1.8ºF ~ ¼ of an ice age unit) pic.twitter.com/Kl8lCFVVjA

— Gavin Schmidt (@ClimateOfGavin) October 15, 2018