Annual 2022 Global Climate Report

The year 2022 was the sixth warmest year since global records began in 1880 at 0.86°C (1.55°F) above the 20th century average of 13.9°C (57.0°F). This value is 0.13°C (0.23°F) less than the record set in 2016 and it is only 0.02°C (0.04°F) higher than the last year's (2021) value, which now ranks as the seventh highest. The 10 warmest years in the 143-year record have all occurred since 2010, with the last nine years (2014–2022) ranking as the nine warmest years on record. Of note, the year 2005, which was the first year to set a new global temperature record in the 21st century, currently ties with 2013 as the 11th-warmest year on record. The year 2010, which had surpassed 2005 at the time, now ranks as the 10th-warmest year on record.

Similar to 2021, the year 2022 began with a cold phase El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) episode, also known as La Niña, that persisted throughout the year. ENSO not only affects global weather patterns, but it also affects global temperatures. As seen in the image below, during the warm phase of ENSO (El Niño), global temperatures tend to be warmer than ENSO-neutral or La Niña years, while global temperatures tend to be slightly cooler during cold phase ENSO episodes (La Niña). Despite the last two years (2021 and 2022) not ranking among the five warmest years on record, the global annual temperature increased at an average rate of 0.08°C (0.14°F) per decade since 1880 and over twice that rate (0.18°C / 0.32°F) since 1981.

During 2022, each monthly global surface temperature ranked among the ten warmest for their respective month. The month with the highest global temperature departure for the year was March at +0.94°C (+1.69°F), while November had the lowest global temperature departure for the year at +0.75°C (+1.35°F).

The 2022 Northern Hemisphere surface temperature was also the sixth highest on record at +1.10°C (+1.98°F). Meanwhile, the Southern Hemisphere had its seventh-warmest year on record, with a temperature that was 0.61°C (1.10°F) above the 20th century average.

The 1901–2000 average combined land and ocean annual temperature is 13.9°C (57.0°F), the annually averaged land temperature for the same period is 8.5°C (47.3°F), and the long-term annually averaged sea surface temperature is 16.1°C (60.9°F).

The following table lists the global combined land and ocean annually averaged temperature rank and anomaly for each of the 10 warmest years on record.

The following information was compiled from previous NCEI monitoring reports, public reports by National Hydrometeorological Services (NHMSs; peers of the U.S. National Weather Service), and WMO's 2022 provisional statement.

The year was characterized by much-warmer-than-average temperatures across much of the globe, with record-high annual temperatures across parts of Europe, southern Asia, the North and southwestern Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic, and southeastern Pacific oceans. Meanwhile, cooler-than-average temperatures were limited to the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, consistent with an episode of La Niña that persisted throughout the year.

North America's annual temperature was 0.91°C (1.64°F) above the 1910-2000 average and tied with 2011 and 2019 as the 15th-warmest year on record. Temperatures across North America varied throughout the year. Ten of the 12 months had an above-average monthly temperature. The months of June through October ranked among the seven warmest for their respective months, with the months of August and September ranking as the warmest on record. September 2022 was North America's warmest month of the year with a temperature departure of +2.02°C (+3.64°F), while February was North America's coldest month of the year at -0.42°C (-0.76°F). North America's yearly temperature has increased at an average rate of 0.13°C (0.23°F) since 1910; however, the average rate of increase is twice as great (0.27°C / 0.49°F) since 1981.

South America's annual temperature was 0.89°C (1.60°F) above average — the 12th-warmest year since regional records began in 1910. This was South America's 46th consecutive year with temperatures above average. Nine of South America's 10 warmest years have occurred since 2012. South America's annual temperature has increased at an average rate of 0.14°C (0.25°F) per decade since 1910; however, the average rate of increase is nearly double (0.22°C / 0.40°F) that value since 1981.

South America had monthly temperatures that were above-average during 2022. The months of January and July had a near-record warm month. The month of July had the highest temperature departure of the year at +1.66°C (+2.99°F); meanwhile, May had the smallest temperature departure for the year at +0.27°C (+0.49°F).

Europe had above-average monthly temperatures throughout the year, with the highest monthly temperature departure of +3.12°C (+5.62°F) occurring in February. Despite it being the highest monthly temperature for the year, February 2022 ranked as the seventh-warmest February on record. The months of August and October had a temperature departure that ranked as the warmest for respective months. The smallest monthly temperature departure for the year was +0.80°C (+1.44°F) in September.

The year as a whole ranked as the second warmest for Europe, behind the record year of 2020 by 0.23°C (0.41°F). The year 2022 was also the 26th consecutive year with temperatures above average. Europe's 10 warmest years have occurred since 2007. The annual temperature for Europe has increased at an average rate of 0.15°C (0.27°F) per decade since 1910; however, it has tripled to 0.46°C (0.83°F) since 1981.

Africa had an annual temperature of +1.01°C (+1.82°F), which is the 10th highest in the continent's 113-year record. Despite being above-average, this value was the smallest annual temperature for Africa since 2014. The year 2022 marked Africa's 46th consecutive year with temperatures above average. Africa's 10 warmest years have occurred since 2005. Africa's annual temperature has increased at an average rate of 0.13°C (0.23°F) per decade since 1910; however, it has more than doubled to 0.28°C (0.50°F) since 1981.

Throughout the year, Africa's monthly temperatures were above average. The months of April, June, September, October, and December ranked among the 10 warmest for their respective months; however, no month had a record warm or record cold temperature for the year. The month with the highest temperature departure in 2022 was December with 1.50°C (2.70°F), while January had the smallest temperature departure at +0.60°C (+1.08°F).

Asia had its second-warmest year on record at +1.80°C (+3.24°F). This value is 0.26°C (0.47°F) less than the record year set in 2020. The year 2022 marked the 35th consecutive year with temperatures above average. Asia's 10 warmest years have occurred since 2007. Asia's trend during the 1910–2022 period was +0.17°C (+0.31°F) per decade; however, the 1981–2022 trend is twice the longer-term trend (+0.37°C / +0.67°F).

Monthly temperatures were 1.0°C (1.8°F) above average or higher during 2022. Each month from January through October ranked among the 10 warmest for each respective month, with the month of April being Asia's warmest April on record at 2.64°C (4.75°F) above average. March and April 2022 had the highest temperature departure in 2022 (+2.64°C / +4.75°F), while December had the smallest temperature departure (+1.00°C / +1.80°F) in 2022.

Oceania had an above average yearly temperature departure of +0.73°C (+1.31°F) — the 14th highest in the 113-year record. Nine of Oceania's 10 warmest years have occurred since 2005. The 1910–2022 trend for Oceania was +0.12°C (+0.22°F) per decade; however, the trend is close to twice that during the 1981–2022 period (+0.19°C / +0.34°F per decade).

Each month from January through October had an above-average temperature, with the months of January, March and April ranking among the 10 warmest for their respective months. The month with the highest temperature departure for the year was April (+1.62°C / +2.92°F), while November had the smallest temperature departure for 2022 at 0.60°C (1.08°F) below average. November was the only month in 2022 that had a below average temperature and it ranked as the 20th coldest November on record for Oceania.

Unusually warm temperatures affected parts of Antarctica during mid-March, with temperatures at least 22.2°C (40.0°F) warmer than average. According to media reports, several locations set new March temperature records on March 18, 2022. Of note, the Concordia station had a temperature of -12.2°C (10.0°F), which is 38.8°C (70.0°F) above average. Also, according to Severe Weather Europe, Australia's Casey Research Station in Antarctica reported a maximum temperature of 5.6°C (42.1°F) on March 16—the highest March temperature since records began for this station in 1989.

As indicated by the Global Percent of Normal Precipitation and Precipitation Percentiles maps below and as is typical, many stations were wet for the year, while many stations were dry. Also, as discussed below, extreme precipitation and drought events occurred across the world.

Significantly below-average annual precipitation occurred across parts of the southwestern and south-central contiguous U.S., southern Chile, parts of southern and western Europe, and north-central China. Significantly above-average annual precipitation occurred across parts of southern Alaska, the north-central contiguous U.S., northern and eastern Asia, and eastern Australia.

The following analysis is based upon the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) Interim Climate Data Record. It is provided courtesy of the GPCP Principal Investigator team at the University of Maryland.

The Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) monthly data set is a long-term (1979-present) analysis (Adler et al., 2018) using a combination of satellite and gauge information. An interim GPCP analysis completed within 10 days of the end of the month allows for use in climate monitoring and, in this case, an examination of the completed year (2022).

The continuing La Niña dominates the spatial distribution of precipitation across the globe for 2022 and even the global total for the year in a very similar fashion to the previous year, 2021. This current La Niña started in the Boreal Spring of 2020 and, although there have been variations in intensity (as indicated by values of the Niño 3.4 index) the annual precipitation anomaly patterns have been generally consistent with each other for 2021 and 2022. This consistency has practical considerations in terms ofdistribution across the globe of floods and landslides on the wet side and drought on the dry side of things.

The annual mean precipitation map for 2022 (Fig. 1, top panel) shows the usual precipitation maxima of the tropics and mid-latitudes and dry zones in the sub-tropics and, of course, generally looks very similar to the long-term climatology (not shown). However, there are significant anomalies for 2022 from that long-term (1979–2021) climatology as seen in the middle panel of Fig. 1. The most intense rainfall anomaly features are the positive and negative areas in the deep tropics along the Equator at the core of La Niña impact in the central Pacific (negative anomaly) and to the west over the Maritime Continent and border between the Pacific and Indian Oceans (positive anomaly). The maximum deviations at the core of these features are greater than ± 3 mm d-1. With La Niña's associated below normal SSTs in the central Pacific Ocean, convection and rainfall are suppressed there. With the east-west oriented Walker circulation shifting longitudinally, enhanced rising motion is centered to the west to go along with the relative descent over the central Pacific negative rainfall anomaly. This relatively subtle change happens, even though the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) still maintains its narrow east-west intense rainfall mean structure across the Pacific along with the broader north-south feature to the west associated with the Asian-Australian monsoon system. Further east positive anomalies dominate the northern part of South America and the Atlantic ITCZ. These features are typical of La Niña conditions in general. This is confirmed by the La Niña composite (Fig. 1, bottom panel) constructed by taking the mean of annual precipitation anomaly fields for the years where the annual mean Niño 3.4 SST index is in the one-third lowest (coolest) part of the range of SST values. For 2022 the Niño 3.4 mean index value is -0.94.

These tropical La Niña features in 2022 helped to fuel frequent flood and landslide conditions, for example, in Indonesia and Malaysia, Indochina, southern India, Pakistan and the southeast quadrant of Australia. Floods and landslides were also more prevalent across northern South America and eastern Brazil related to the typical La Niña features there, but with dry anomalies and drought conditions existing over much of the southern half of South America.

There is an obvious correlation in the pattern of anomaly features for 2022 and those in the composite (which does not include 2022). For example, the spatial correlation between panels b and c of Fig.1 between 40°N and 40°S is +0.72. This spatial agreement can even be seen to extend into the mid-latitude parts of the Pacific Ocean in both hemispheres. Stretching southeastward from the anomaly couplet in the tropical western Pacific, anomaly features extend to 60°S with the dry zone reaching the southern tip of South America, with the adjacent positive anomaly reaching the Straits of Magellan. These features showing up in both in 2022 and the composite anomaly fields indicate the long-distance influence of the central Pacific Ocean SST conditions.

The Indian Ocean also reflects the La Niña effect with positive anomalies in the east and dry conditions in the west, extending over the Horn of Africa and southward through eastern Africa, but with positive anomalies over South Africa. The dry features over Somalia and southward have led to a multi-year severe drought in these areas and even power cuts in Zambia due to low water in power-generating dams. In the La Niña composite Australia is covered with above average precipitation, but the corresponding feature for 2022 only covers most of the country, but is reflective of the prevalence of floods in the southeast.

Over North America the La Niña composite has a dry feature over the eastern Pacific extending across all the southern U.S. states with a positive anomaly across Canada; however, although the pattern for 2022 has a corresponding feature in the eastern Pacific, over the continent things are somewhat different, with drier than normal conditions over most of the central and eastern part of the continent, even associated with low flow in the Mississippi River, but varied conditions to the north, with wetter than normal conditions in Alaska. For 2022 the general ongoing drought in the western part of the U.S. was weakened in some areas in opposition to the usual effect of La Niña. The Hawaiian Islands have also experienced weak drought conditions in 2022 and that agrees with the anomaly pattern for the 2022, which might have some association with La Niña, although in that part of the Pacific the La Niña composite is spatially very variable. The 2022 pattern across the Caribbean and tropical Atlantic north of the ITCZ also is not typical of La Niña, which usually is associated with increased hurricane activity, but remained relatively dry this year.

To the east of North America, the Atlantic Ocean is covered with a large area of below average precipitation for the year, roughly in agreement with the La Niña composite. That negative feature for 2022 extends into western Europe and is associated with themajor drought ongoing over that area. Although the composite is relatively weak there, it still seems to be of the same sign as this year's precipitation deficit and may indicate a distant extent of La Niña's effect.

Fig. 2 shows the anomaly patterns for the three-month intervals during 2022 having a high degree of consistency during the year, especially across the tropical Pacific belt and beyond to the east and west. Variations during the year are noted in the intense positiveanomaly for the summer in southern Pakistan and India, the strong dry anomaly over the Horn of Africa during its rainy season in Spring and a wet/dry variation over South China during the year.

The estimated mean global precipitation for 2022 is estimated from the GPCP Monthly analyses as 2.67 mm d-1, just below (-.02 mm d-1) the 40-year climatological mean of 2.69. The mean values for ocean and land are 2.85 (-.05) and 2.30 (+.05) mm d-1, respectively. This kind of distribution with the positive anomaly over land and negative anomaly over ocean is typical of La Niña. The global total (land plus ocean) being slightly below average is also typical of La Niña conditions and reflects the slightly reduced ocean temperatures affecting ocean evaporation. More detail on trends in global and regional precipitation and comparison climate models is available in Gu and Adler (2022).

One key large-scale planetary trend that is extended with the 2022 data is the deep tropics (0-10°N, land plus ocean) increasing and sub-tropics (30-40°N, land plus ocean) decreasing (Fig. 3). This is a definite indication of wet-getting-wetter and dry-getting drier climate change at a large scale as the mean values in these two bands are different by about a factor of two, with the larger value at the lower latitude. The year 2022 contributes to this trend, but is not the maximum value in the difference or gradientcalculation (4 th biggest of the entire period). The La Niña years (e.g., 2021, 2022) tend to have smaller deep tropic numbers, for example, compared to 2015, dominated by El Niño conditions.

NOAA and NASA satellites monitor drought across all of the continents of the world, with the agricultural areas of many continents severely impacted by drought in 2022. The global precipitation, evapotranspiration, soil moisture, groundwater, and vegetative health tools created from this satellite data are presented in the Global Drought Information System's (GDIS) Global Drought Monitor housed at NCEI. The year began drier than normal across parts of southern Europe, with the Iberian Peninsula in the midst of a prolonged dry spell that had lasted at that point for much of 2021. Drier-than-normal conditions developed across most of Europe during March 2022 and recurred across parts of Europe throughout the summer and fall. Temperatures were above normal across most to all of the continent in January and February, but excessive heat dominated the continent from May to August, resulting in extreme evapotranspiration that exacerbated the dry conditions. Above-normal temperatures returned in October and November.

The combination of below-normal precipitation and hot conditions dried out soils, lowered streamflow and groundwater, and desiccated crops and other vegetation. Europe had the warmest February–August, June–November, and October–November, with January–November 2022 ranking as the second warmest such 11-month period in NCEI's 113-year global temperature record. In Australia, 2022 began with dry soils in the western fourth of the continent. Drier- and warmer-than-normal conditions in austral fall (March–May) dried out soils in northern areas, but above-normal conditions during austral spring (September–November) reduced precipitation deficits and improved soil moisture conditions across most of the continent. By the end of 2022, Australia was the only continent not experiencing areas of severe drought. Drier- and warmer-than-normal conditions occurred in various parts of Asia at various times during the year, but two regions stand out in terms of drought impact. Parts of Southwest Asia were dry during most months in 2022, with dry conditions during much of the last three years lowering groundwater levels and ravaging crops. Dry conditions in southwestern parts of China during August 2022 prompted the country to issue its first national drought alert of the year as authorities battled forest fires and crops were damaged by high temperatures and evapotranspiration.

Drought shifted east during September, lowering soil moisture and groundwater levels in southeastern China where high evapotranspiration rates damaged crops; these conditions persisted through the fall. In Africa, the Sahel region and much of East Africa were dry for the last three to four years. The persistent dryness and high temperatures/evapotranspiration in 2022 depleted soil moisture, lowered groundwater, and desiccated vegetation. With 2022, East Africa experienced four consecutive failed rainy seasons, a climatic event not seen in at least 40 years that created what the United Nations deemed a humanitarian emergency as more than 23 million people in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya were faced with severe hunger/famine. In South America, drought stretched from Peru and central and southern Brazil to the agricultural lands of Argentina, with 2022 marking the second year of dry conditions in many of these areas. Satellite-based data revealed low groundwater, dry soils, and poor vegetative health. Rain fell across some of the drought areas during some months of 2022, but it was not enough to erase deficits that built up over 12 to 24 months. Temperatures were frequently above normal, enhancing evapotranspiration that added to the stress on crops in Argentina and Uruguay.

During 2022, North America endured its warmest July-October in NCEI's 1910–2022 historical record. The excessive heat increased evapotranspiration that ravaged crops in drought-stricken western and central areas of the U.S., the Prairies of Canada, and parts of Mexico. Portions of the southern Prairies have been in drought since the summer of 2020, but excessively dry conditions during July–October 2022 expanded drought across much of western Canada. Much of the western U.S. has been in drought since the summer of 2020, but parts of the southwestern U.S. (the Four Corners states) have had drought since 2017. A very dry start to the 2022 wet season in Mexico expanded drought across the central and northern areas during the spring and early summer, before late summer and fall rain prompted contraction.

Ocean Heat Content (OHC) is essential for understanding and modeling global climate since > 90% of excess heat in the Earth's system is absorbed by the ocean. Further, expansion due to increased ocean heat contributes to sea level rise. Change in OHC is calculated from the difference of observed temperature profiles from the long-term mean.

The annual global ocean heat content (OHC) for 2022 for the upper 2000 meters was record high, surpassing the previous record set in 2021. The four highest OHC have all occurred in the last four years (2019–2022). The regions of the North Pacific, North Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and southern oceans also had their highest OHC since the 1950s.

The ocean heating is irrefutable and a key measure of the Earth's energy imbalance: the excess greenhouse gases in the air trap more heat inside the climate system and drives global warming. More than 90% of the heat accumulates in the ocean because of its large heat capacity, and the other heating is manifested in warming the atmosphere, warming and drying land, and melting land and sea ice. There are no reasonable alternatives aside from the human emissions of heat-trapping gases (IPCC 2001, 2007, 2013, 2020; USGCRP 2017).

For additional information on the 2022 OHC, please see the paper titled Another Year of Record Heat for the Oceans (Cheng et al., 2023).