The year 2020 is virtually certain to rank among the five-warmest years on record. Students in Legazpi City, Philippines declare a climate emergency amid damage left by Super Typhoon Goni on November 8, 2020. Goni made landfall 30 miles northeast of Legazpi on November 1 with 195 mph winds, making it the strongest landfalling tropical cyclone ever recorded. (Photo credit: Bicol University Science Alliance) November 2020 was the second warmest November since global record keeping began in 1880, behind the record set in 2015, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, NCEI, reported December 14. NASA rated the month as the warmest November on record, as did the European Copernicus Climate Change Service. The Japan Meteorological Agency rated it as the second-warmest. Minor differences in rankings often occur among various research groups, the result of different ways they handle data-sparse regions such as the Arctic.