2017 Was One of the Hottest Years on Record. And That Was Without El Niño.

2017 Was One of the Hottest Years on Record. And That Was Without El Niño.
In ten years we’re going to say ‘oh look, another record decade of warming temperatures.’”
An analysis by a private independent group, Berkeley Earth, ranked last year as the warmest year on record without El Niño.
Zeke Hausfather, a researcher with the group, said that despite the weak La Niña, “It doesn’t seem like there’s any evidence things are cooling down.”
By both the NASA and NOAA analyses, 17 of the 18 warmest years since modern record-keeping began have occurred since 2001.
What made the numbers unexpected was that last year had no El Niño, a shift in tropical Pacific weather patterns
that is usually linked to record-setting heat and that contributed to record highs the previous two years.
Scientists at NASA on Thursday ranked last year as the second-warmest year since reliable record-keeping began in 1880, trailing only 2016.
By HENRY FOUNTAIN,
The world in 2017 saw some of the highest average surface temperatures ever recorded,
surprising scientists who had expected sharper retreat from recent record years.