NOAA: January 2020 was Earth's hottest January on record

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- "In the span of 141 years of climate records, there has never been a warmer January than last month," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced Thursday.

ABC7 News Meteorologist Mike Nicco says every decade since the 1960s has been warmer than average.

"The earth has warmed at least 10 degrees Fahrenheit since the last Ice Age, in the Arctic, the air conditioner of the Earth, is warming three times faster than any other place on Earth and that is very problematic," said Nicco.

Here's more from NOAA's January global climate report:

The January global land and ocean surface temperature were the highest on record at 2.05 degrees F (1.14 degrees C) above the 20th-century average. This surpassed the record set in January 2016 by 0.04 of a degree F (0.02 of a degree C).

The four warmest Januaries documented in the climate record have occurred since 2016; the 10 warmest have all occurred since 2002.

Breaking the month down by hemispheres, the Northern Hemisphere also had its warmest January on record, at 2.70 degrees F (1.50 degrees C) above average. The Southern Hemisphere had a departure of 1.40 degrees F (0.78 of a degree C) above average. It's second-warmest January on record after January 2016.

More notable climate events in the January report

Lots of regional heat to go around. Record-warm temperatures were seen across parts of Scandinavia, Asia, the Indian Ocean, the central and western Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and Central and South America. No land or ocean areas had record-cold January temperatures.

Polar sea ice coverage remained smaller than normal