Global Temperatures In 2020 Among Highest On Record: World Meteorological Organization Global Temperatures In 2020 Among Highest On Record: World Meteorological Organization All five datasets surveyed by WMO showed that 2011-2020 was the warmest decade on record, and NOAA said the seven warmest years since record-keeping began in 1880 have occurred since 2014. A truck drives through a deforested plot of the Amazon in Boca do Acre, Amazonas state, Brazil. Washington: Global temperatures in 2020 were among the highest on record and rivaled 2016 as the hottest year ever, according to international data compiled by the World Meteorological Organization and released on Thursday. The heat came even as a global economic slowdown from the COVID-19 pandemic cut deeply into emissions from fossil fuels, adding evidence that carbon dioxide concentrations already in the atmosphere have set the planet on a warming track.