US land-surface temperature anomalies in 2020

Long-term observations of global surface temperatures show that over the past 100 years, there has been a clear and observable upward trend. At the same time, we see complex seasonal and geographical patterns emerge, with more extreme deviations from the long-term averages. This map series shows average monthly landsurface temperature anomalies in the USA in 2020 compared to the average conditions for the period between 2001 and 2010 as derived from NASA satellite observations. Red areas show where the land surface was warmer than average during the daytime, while blue areas show below-average extremes for the respective month. countries don’t have the resilience to climate change and you see large-scale migration and conflict. We don’t see that in the USA, but what is true is that the impacts of climate change have changed people’s views.’ Yet Cleetus notes that even as the extremes of 2020 were being played out, ‘we had an administration that was putting fuel on the fire.’ Then-president Trump withdrew the USA from the Paris Climate Accord (US pledges at Paris account for 20 per cent of all the treaty’s proposed global emissions reductions), but this was merely his most high-profile measure. The now former president kept his word on climate change and confounded those who believed he would tone down the rhetoric and listen to science in the best interests of his nation.

‘We thought he would just go after climate change regulations,’ says Betsy Southerland, a former director at the Office of Science and Technology at