El PASO, Texas (KTSM) — December will determine whether 2020 will go down as the hottest year on record.
There’s a 55% chance that 2020 will end up as the warmest on record, according to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Association (NOAA), reported by the Associated Press.
“We’re still dealing with above-normal temperatures, and that has been the case for 99% of our summer,” said Jason Laney of the National Weather Service.
NOAA calculations show that the first 11 months of 2020 were .02 degrees cooler than the record-hot year of 2016.
If December ends up being above normal as much as November was, then 2020 will tie with 2016 as the warmest on record. NOAA researchers calculated Monday that last month was the second hottest November globally on record, second only to 2015.
“We’re still seeing this trend,” Laney said. “We have seen it at least every year for the last five to six years of our average temperatures getting higher and higher and higher. Some would call that the urban heat island effect, but this is something we’re starting to see in our rural communities as well.
“Because of the increased concrete, steel, inside our larger cities, like our home of El Paso … we tend to absorb more heat,” Laney continued.
So are we the reason behind climate change?
“Well, what I can tell you is we do contribute to it,” Laney said.
According to NASA, the earth’s temperature in November was 56.95 degrees Fahrenheit, which was 1.75 degrees above the 20th-century average.
This year, so far, is the warmest on record and it’s likely to stay that way.
