2020 ties for warmest year on record, continuing 7-year hot streak

Wildfires in Siberia.
(Image credit: EKATERINA ANISIMOVA/AFP via Getty Images)

2020 has tied with 2016 for the hottest year on record — and there's no end to the warming in sight.

A wave of scientific institutions' analyses released in the past week point to a "photo finish" between the two years for the hottest on record, Zeke Hausfather, a climate expert at the Breakthrough Institute, told The Washington Post. And regardless of which year is on top, 2020 and the six years before it make up the top 7 hottest years in more than a century and a half of recorded history, once again showing how human-caused global warming is continuing to warp the planet.

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Kathryn Krawczyk

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.