Hi. My name is Doctor Kate Calvin.
I'm NASA's Chief Scientist and Senior Climate Advisor.
And I'm going to answer some of the top questions
that we're getting from users like you about climate
This May was the hottest May on record.
So we've had now 12 consecutive record breaking months of heat.
That means for the last year, every month has been
the hottest of that month on record.
so May was the hottest May on record.
2023 was the hottest year on record.
We're also seeing other changes in in ecosystems all around the world.
So we're seeing changes in precipitation patterns.
We see more heavy precipitation in some regions.
We see more droughts.
We're seeing declines in ice,
both Arctic sea ice as well as changes in the mass of ice sheets.
We are seeing increases in sea level that affect coastal communities
all around the world, and we're seeing all of these changes.
We can observe them through surface measurements,
we can see them through satellite
based measurements, and we can see how the Earth is changing over time.
So what
we mean by that is that May is the hottest May on record.
April was the hottest April on record.
There is still a seasonal cycle.
But what we're saying is that that winters are getting hotter
than anything we've experienced, that we've recorded before.
Summers are hotter than what we've recorded before, and so that each
individual month is, respectively, the hottest of that month on record.
Not necessarily.
So we're
seeing an overall trend in warming, but we might still see individual years
that are hotter or cooler than the previous,
and individual months that are hotter or cooler than the previous month.
So we are seeing an overall trend in warming,
but that doesn't necessarily mean every single month will be the hottest.
El Nino is a natural cycle
that affects temperatures and and weather around the world.
El Nino years tend to be warmer on average than others.
La Nina years tend to be cooler on average.
But with climate change, what we're seeing is an overall trend in warming.
So our La Nina years are also getting warmer, as well as our El Nino years.
And so we see an overall trend in warming, but we're still seeing
individual years that are warmer or cooler than the previous year
because of El Nino and La Nina.
Well, we know what's driving the warming on our planet.
We know it's driven by increases in greenhouse gases.
We also know, how to limit warming.
So we know that by reducing greenhouse gases we can reduce the rate of warming.
And there are options available today that can help us reduce greenhouse gases.
There's also people all around the world
that are working to better understand our planet, and to develop technologies
and understanding
that can help us address the changes that are happening where I live.
And there's people like you that are learning about this now
and can help us in the future.