While NASA and NOAA differ on whether 2017 was the second or third warmest year since 1880, "long-term the agencies' records remain in strong agreement."

The U.S. space agency reports that Earth continued on its "long-term warming trend" with average temperatures 1.62 warmer than the 1951-1980 mean. This mark puts 2017 in second place only to 2016, by NASA's standards.

"The planet's average surface temperature has risen about 2 degrees Fahrenheit (a little more than 1 degree Celsius) during the last century or so, a change driven largely by increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere," NASA reports in a news release.

As for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's findings, it reports that 2017 was the third-warmest year since it started keeping track. The link to NOAA's findings leads to a page that comments on the federal government shutdown, but NASA reports the two agencies used similar raw data but a different baseline period and methods.

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NASA says it used surface temperature data from 6,300 weather stations, ship and buoy observations from sea surface temperatures, and findings from research stations in Antarctica.

The Associated Press reports that the global average temperature in 2017 was 58.51 degrees.

This map shows Earth's average global temperature from 2013 to 2017, as compared to a baseline average from 1951 to 1980, according to an analysis by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Yellows, oranges, and reds show regions warmer than the baseline.

"Despite colder than average temperatures in any one part of the world, temperatures over the planet as a whole continue the rapid warming trend we've seen over the last 40 years," NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies head Gavin Schmidt said in a release.

For those ready to point to lower temperatures from 2016 to 2017, NASA and NOAA's findings show that the five warmest years ever have all occurred since 2010. It has also been more than 30 years since the Earth's temperatures were cooler than average.

While looking at the impact of El Nino and La Nina on the year's average temperatures, NASA says that if the phenomenon were removed that 2017 would have been the warmest year to date.

"Phenomena such as El Nino or La Nina, which warm or cool the upper tropical Pacific Ocean and cause corresponding variations in global wind and weather patterns, contribute to short-term variations in global average temperature," NASA reports.

"A warming El Nino event was in effect for most of 2015 and the first third of 2016. Even without an El Nino event - and with a La Nina starting in the later months of 2017 - last year's temperatures ranked between 2015 and 2016 in NASA's records."

As for others, A.P. reports that European agencies called 2017 the second warmest, Japanese Meteorological Agency the third hottest, and others bounced between second and third depending on methods.