It is true that Earth’s orbit is not a perfect circle. It is slightly elongated, so that during part of the year, Earth is closer to the Sun than at other times. However, in the Northern Hemisphere, we are having winter when Earth is closest to the Sun and summer when it is farthest away!

As shown here, the northern hemisphere receives less sunlight per unit area when it is tilted away from the sun and experiences the cold of winter. At the same time, the southern hemisphere is receiving more sunlight per unit area because it is tilted towards the sun and experiences the heat of summer.

Each hemisphere cools down during the part of the year it’s tilted away from the sun. “Meteorological winter in the Northern Hemisphere is always the months of December, January, and February, because those tend to be the coldest months of the year,” he says.

For the Northern Hemisphere, the months of January and February are typically the coldest. The reason is due to cumulative cooling and a relatively low sun angle.

For most of the country, the warmest day occurs sometime between mid-July and mid-August. The amount of solar radiation reaching Earth (in the northern Hemisphere) peaks at the summer solstice on June 21, but temperatures tend to keep increasing into July.

Scientists say 2020 is on track to be one of the warmest years on record. Above-average temperatures are expected this summer across most of the U.S.

May 9th, 2020

On September 13, 1922, a temperature of 136°F was recorded at El Azizia, Libya. This was eventually certified by the World Meteorological Organization as the hottest air temperature ever recorded on Earth.

July

Globally, 2020 was the hottest year on record, effectively tying 2016, the previous record. Overall, Earth’s average temperature has risen more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the 1880s. Earth’s global average surface temperature in 2020 tied with 2016 as the warmest year on record, according to an analysis by NASA.

The 1936 North American heat wave was one of the most severe heat waves in the modern history of North America. It took place in the middle of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl of the 1930s and caused catastrophic human suffering and an enormous economic toll.

According to a NOAA report released September 14, the Northern Hemisphere had its warmest summer on record in 2020, surpassing both 2019 and 2016, which were previously tied for hottest. The months of June, July and August were 2.11 degrees F (1.17 degrees C) above the 20th-century average.

56.7°C

For the year to date, both NASA and Berkeley Earth rank 2020 as the second warmest globally, a shade behind 2016. To put this into perspective, the world’s five warmest years on record have all occurred since 2015, with 2020 highly likely to continue that trend.

It’s official: 2020 ranks as the second-hottest year on record for the planet, knocking 2019 down to third hottest, according to an analysis by NOAA scientists.

Globally, 2020 was the hottest year on record, effectively tying 2016, the previous record. Overall, Earth’s average temperature has risen more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the 1880s. Temperatures are increasing due to human activities, specifically emissions of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide and methane.

It turns out that we are most likely in an “ice age” now. So, in fact, the last ice age hasn’t ended yet! It has been going on since about 2.5 million years ago (and some think that it’s actually part of an even longer ice age that started as many as 40 million years ago).

Warmest years