Report: 2010s set record for heat

The past decade was the warmest on record, federal climate scientists announced Wednesday, with 2019 becoming the second-warmest year on record.

Global temperature records began in 1880. The warmest year recorded was 2016, which was just 0.07 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than last year.

Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA made the announcement at the annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society in Boston.

The 2010s averaged 58.4 degrees Fahrenheit worldwide, or 1.4 degrees higher than the 20th-century average and more than one-third of a degree warmer than the previous decade, which had been the hottest on record, according to NOAA.

The world’s five warmest years have all occurred since 2015, with nine of the 10 warmest years occurring since 2005. And the planet has now experienced 43 straight years (since 1977) with an above-average global temperature.

Last year was 1.71 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the average from 1901 to 2000, the report said. Alaska had its warmest year on record, with its annual temperature 6.2 degrees above the 1925-2000 average. Southeast Alaska sustained record drought intensity.