Skip to content

130 Years of Earth Surface Temperatures

The weather has been all over the place this year, with record highs and lows recorded in hundreds of different locations around the globe. So how exactly are temperatures changing globally?
Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

The weather has been all over the place this year, with record highs and lows recorded in hundreds of different locations around the globe. So how exactly are temperatures changing globally?

To provide perspective, scientists combined temperature records from over 1000 weather stations since 1880 with modern satellite data. The result is the video below, which shows 130 years of Earth surface temperatures. 

Image Credit: GISS, NASA

Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.
Related
A bearded man wearing glasses and a plaid shirt speaks with a microphone clipped to his collar in front of a purple background with white dots.
The Well
How Rainn Wilson discovered sacredness
The hospital where Rainn Wilson’s wife and son nearly died became his own personal holy site. There, he discovered that the sacred can exist in places we least expect it. During his talk at A Night of Awe and Wonder, he explained how the awe we feel in moments of courage and love is moral beauty — and following it might be the start of our spiritual revolution.
▸
13 min
—
with
Rainn Wilson
Up Next
Can We Bring Back the Woolly Mammoth?
The stem cell scientist Sir Ian Wilmut who cloned Dolly the sheep in 1996 has outlined how to resurrect a woolly mammoth by using cells from frozen carcasses.