A report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says Earth had its hottest year yet in 2024. Oklahoma’s temperatures also exceeded previous records.
The federal weather and climate monitoring administration analyzed records going back 130 years to show how natural and human-caused climate change is altering the planet’s temperatures.
This year’s average global temperature was about 55 degrees Fahrenheit, more than 3 degrees above the 20th-century average.
Although the federal data show last year was the state's hottest year on record, the Oklahoma Mesonet reports 2024 was tied with 2012 at 63.2 degrees Fahrenheit.
In Oklahoma, climate change is likely causing cold months to trend warmer, adding to the state’s overall temperature increase, State Climatologist Gary McManus said ahead of NOAA’s report.
“When you look specifically at Oklahoma, you look at wintertime temperatures, and the overnight temperatures are increasing,” McManus said. “That's sort of the more robust climate change signal with temperatures that we're seeing in Oklahoma.”
Human-caused climate change, largely driven by fossil fuel emissions that trap heat in the atmosphere, leads to significantly more extreme weather events like drought and wildfires, the report reads. In 2024, Oklahoma experienced severe storms and drought that caused more than $1 billion in damages.
The state saw 152 tornadoes last year, the most since official record-keeping began in 1950. The previous record was 149 twisters in 2019.
Local weather patterns are closely linked to the rise in global temperatures, said Gavin Schmidt, climate scientist for NASA.
“This is no longer an esoteric academic exercise for us,” he said of the climate analysis in a Friday media conference. “This is now quite personal.”
As for 2025, Schmidt said he predicts the year to be the third warmest on record partly because of the cooling effects of La Niña, which emerged in December. The phase is one part of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation, which alters weather patterns globally.
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