State of the climate: how the world warmed in 2017

by Zeke Hausfather

A number of records for the Earth’s climate were set in 2017:

• It was the warmest year on record for ocean heat content, which increased markedly between 2016 and 2017.
• It was the second or third warmest year on record for surface temperature – depending on the dataset used – and the warmest year without the influence of an El Niño event.
• It saw record lows in sea ice extent and volume in the Arctic both at the beginning and end of the year, though the minimum extent reached in September was only the eighth lowest on record.
• It also saw record-low Antarctic sea ice for much of the year, though scientists are still working to determine the role of human activity in the region’s sea ice changes.

Read more about why  last year proved to be so remarkable across the oceans, atmosphere, cryosphere and surface temperature of the planet here.

By Zeke Hausfather, originally  from CarbonBrief.