Planet Earth is getting hotter: First half of 2017 is 2nd hottest year in last 120 years

The first half of 2017 has been recorded to be the second-hottest year for Earth, only behind 2016, announced National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

According to the data released by NOAA on Tuesday, average temperature from January to June was 14.4 degrees Celsius, which is 1.6 degrees warmer than the 20th century average.

The report further states that first six months of the year 2017, including June, has ranked in the top three hottest ranks for the particular month. The first six months of the year were 0.16 degrees Celsius behind the same period in 2016, which turned out to be hottest year on record. The particular period of 2017 is ahead of 2015 by 0.05 degrees Celsius.

Ahira Sanchez-Lugo, a NOAA climate scientist to Climate Central said, “After the decline of the strong El Nino I was expecting the values to drop a bit and rank among the top five warmest years. This year has been extremely remarkable.”

She added, “The odds are good that 2017 will stay in second place through the end of the year, and it is even more likely that it will remain in at least the top three hottest years.”

According to NOAA data, June 2017 has ranked third warmest in its record. However, NASA which released it June numbers last week has ranked June 2017 as the fourth hottest. The two agencies though show slight differences in the rankings but strongly agree on the recent warming.

The hotspots around the world for June included Mexico, western and central Europe, eastern Russia and central China. Five of the seven continents had the top 10 warmest January-June, with South America hitting the No. 2 spot for that period.