What winter? Earth just had its second-warmest December-February on record

https://news.yahoo.com/winter-earth-just-had-second-191140256.html

Doyle Rice, USA TODAY
,USA TODAY•March 14, 2020

What winter?

The months of December, January and February – which meteorologists define as winter here in the Northern Hemisphere – were the second-warmest on record, federal scientists announced Friday.

Only the El Niño-fueled winter of 2015-16 was warmer, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. El Niño, a natural warming of sea water in the tropical Pacific Ocean, acts to boost global temperatures.

Global temperature records for the Earth go back to 1880.

Some of the most extreme warmth was in Russia, which smashed its record for warmest winter. Temperatures there were as much as a whopping 12 degrees above average, according to the country's weather service.

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According to a statistical analysis done by NOAA scientists, the year 2020 is "very likely to rank among the five-warmest years on record," NOAA said.

NASA, which also tracks global temperatures, also said that the winter of 2019-20 was the second-warmest on record.

The warm winter comes on the heels of the second warmest year on record (2019) and the fact that the 2010s was the warmest decade ever recorded.

Thanks to human-caused global warming, "this period is now the warmest in the history of modern civilization," according to the National Climate Assessment. "Human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, are the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century," the assessment said.