Land Temperature Anomalies (1964-2024) 

A temperature anomaly is a way of measuring how far air or water temperatures have strayed from a baseline average. Showing how much Earth’s temperature has warmed or cooled compared to a norm is an important way of visualizing how our climate is changing. 

This data visualization shows how air temperatures between 1964 and 2024 departed from the average for 1951-1980. (The anomalies have been plotted in degrees Celsius; a Fahrenheit version of the same animation is available in the plot below.) The darker shades of blue represent times when temperatures were significantly cooler than the norm and the orange and red represent times when temperature was hotter than the norm. 

The bobbing back and forth of the curve shows the influence of El Niño and La Nina. El Niño is a natural climate phenomenon characterized by warmer than normal sea surface temperatures (and higher sea levels) in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. The planet is typically warmer in the El Niño phase and cooler in the La Nina phase. For context, 2020-2022 were all La Nina years, while 2015-16 were El Niño years. 


For more information: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5452/ 

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