The summer of 2024 was the hottest on record according to NASA

Photo: Pixabay

The summer of 2024 was 1.25 degrees Celsius warmer than the average summer between 1951 and 1980, and August itself was 1.3 degrees warmer than the long-term average. The data also show that the rate of global warming has increased markedly in the last two years.

NASA compiles the temperature record under the name GISS Surface Temperature Analysis. This consists of surface air temperature data collected by tens of thousands of weather stations as well as sea surface temperatures. Sea surface temperature data is obtained from buoys and includes areas around Antarctica. The individual measurements are relatively accurate because thanks to the analytical methods, the individual distribution of the stations and their surrounding influences which could distort the calculations are also taken into account.

The researchers assure that GISTEMP captures surface temperatures correctly and there can be no doubt that the increase in global temperature since the end of the nineteenth century is 1.51 degrees Celsius. The study's authors say the measurements are accurate to within a tenth of a degree and for the latest analysis they examined data for each region in all months from 1880 to the present.

In the past, scientists estimated historical temperatures using what is known in statistics as a confidence interval. The range of values ​​around the measurement. A method known as the statistical ensemble of the spread of two hundred most likely values ​​is already in use.

Source: NASA/Editorial