May 2020 was the warmest May on record, scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced. Climate records go back to 1880.

May 2020 was 1.71 degrees above average, which put the month in a tie with May 2016 for the warmest May on record. The 10 warmest Mays have all occurred since 1998. The warmth was most noteworthy in Asia, NOAA said.


The heat wasnโ€™t just limited to May, according to NOAA: The three-month season (March through May) and the year-to-date (January through May) ranked second-warmest in the 141-year global record, NOAA said.

A separate analysis from NASA said that May 2020 was the record-warmest month.

Looking ahead to the entire year, Berkeley Earth said that “updated projections for the rest of 2020 give a 89% chance that 2020 will be a new record warm year, a significant increase relative to prior projections.”

However, climate scientist James Hansen, formerly of NASA and now of Columbia University’s Earth Institute , said in an email that “2020 and 2016 will be the two warmest years, but which one will wear the crown?
The answer is of little import โ€“ they will be close, likely a statistical dead heat.”