2017 was one of the three hottest years on record, Nasa and NOAA scientists say

However you slice it, last year was a top-three scorcher. Global temperatures in 2017 were the third-highest on record, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the second-highest, according to data from Nasa.

While the results announced during a joint briefing on Thursday have slight statistical differences, they clearly show that global warming continues its upwards climb, scientists said.

The results were buttressed by analyses from the United Kingdom Met Office and the World Meteorological Organisation, which also ranked 2017 as a top-three year for recorded global temperatures.

Apart from a few cold spots, “the planet is warming remarkably uniformly,” Gavin Schmidt, director of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said at the briefing.

The average temperature in 2017 across land and ocean surfaces was 0.82 Celsius (1.51 degrees Fahrenheit) above the average for the 20th century, just behind the record-breaking temperatures set in 2016.

This makes the last three years – 2015, 2016 and 2017 – the hottest years since 1880. In fact, six of the hottest years have occurred just since 2010.