Global Temperature Anomalies

This short NASA Goddard visualization shows how Earth's surface temperature has changed since modern record-keeping began in 1880. Each frame compares temperatures with the 1951–1980 average, so warming shows up as a steady spread of warmer-than-normal colours across the globe.

What the video shows

• NASA's analysis that 2017 was the second-warmest year on record at the time, about 0.90 °C above the 1951–1980 average
• That 2017 was the third year in a row more than 1 °C above late-1800s levels
• How the record is built: about 6,300 weather stations, ship- and buoy-based sea-surface measurements, and Antarctic research stations

Since this video was made

The trend it shows has continued. Every year since 2015 has been warmer than any year before it, and 2024 became the warmest year on record, about 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. Independent groups, including NASA, NOAA, the UK Met Office, Berkeley Earth and Japan's Meteorological Agency, use different methods and reach the same result, which is strong evidence that the warming is real and not an artifact of how the data are processed.

Related reading: Anthropogenic Climate Change, Graphical Misinformation and Anecdotal Evidence and Climate Change.