2020 was an unprecedented year globally. That can also be said about climate change.
A report released by NOAA and NASA this week shows that 2020 was the hottest year on record, tying with 2016.
In fact, the last seven years have been the warmest on record.
These trends likely mean more extreme weather events in the future.
For Arizona and the Desert Southwest, this includes droughts and wildfires, according to NASA scientist Tom Neumann.
“As global temperatures warm, some areas do experience more intense droughts which lead to more volatile fuel stocks,” Neumann said in an interview with ABC 15.
“We saw gigantic fires in Australia, Colorado, California, other places, that were due in part to this ongoing warming and increasing severity of droughts in different places.”
Last year, the United States dealt with 22 weather and climate-related disasters that exceeded one billion dollars. That’s the most in our nation’s history.
Scientists say to expect the warming trend to continue with the continual buildup of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.
To read more about the global temperatures, click here.
