Was 1934 the hottest year in the global record?

1934 was a particularly hot year in the contiguous United States, but not globally exceptional. Worldwide, 1934 was a relatively cooler year and does not stand out in the global record.

The myth began when NASA corrected 6 years of erroneous U.S. temperature data in 2007, shifting 1934 ahead in the U.S. dataset due to earlier calculation errors. Adjustments accounted for factors like time-of-observation bias and weather station changes. Regionally, 1934’s U.S. heat was part of the Dust Bowl, a crisis caused by drought and poor land management.

However, while regional temperature spikes occur naturally, global climate change concerns long-term and worldwide trends.

Global temperatures have risen since the Industrial Revolution, driven by human emissions of greenhouse gases. The ten hottest years on record were between 2015 and 2025. 1934 saw a global temperature anomaly of -0.16 C, while 2024’s record high was 1.28 C above the 20th century average.