2016 was Earth's hottest year on record

For the third consecutive year, the earth set a global heat record, a sign some scientists said that human contributions to climate change are superseding natural variability.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA released their 2016 temperature data Wednesday morning.

The average temperature across the earth's land and ocean surfaces was 58.69 degrees, according to the NOAA.

The average global temperature in 2016 was 1.69 degrees above the 20th century average of 57 degrees. That surpasses the 2015 record, which surpassed the 2014 record.

According to NASA, most global warming has happened in the last 35 years, with 16 of the 17 warmest years having occurred since 2001.

NOAA's temperature records go back 137 years.

"Remarkably, this is the third consecutive year a new global annual temperature record has been set," a NOAA report said. "This marks the fifth time in the 21st century a new record high annual temperature has been set."

The other years were 2005, 2010, 2014 and 2015.

Read more at NOAA.

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