This video, put together by NASA using temperature records from 1880 to 2011, shows you the warming world in just 26 terrifying seconds. Blue shows temperatures that are lower than the baseline average between 1951 and 1980, and reds show temperatures above the average. Hat tip to Climate Central for flagging the video.
The NASA video shows temperatures through 2011, which was the ninth warmest year on record at the time. But 2012 is certainly on pace to be just as out-of-the-ordinary. In the US, the summer months were the third hottest on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced on Monday. And between January and June 2012, the national temperature averaged 52.9°F –which is 4.5°F above the 20th-century average, as Julia Whitty reported in July.
