Despite conditions that favored cooling, we've never recorded higher temps.

Today, NASA and NOAA are announcing that 2020 was one for the record books, tying with 2016 for the warmest year since we've been tracking temperatures. NASA rates 2020 as the warmest ever, although by a margin that's not large enough to reach statistical significance; NOAA reverses the order, also without a significant difference between the two years. Whatever its precise rank, 2020 was the continuation of a worrying trend—the past seven years are all on the list of the seven warmest years on record, regardless of which source you turn to for your global temperatures.