FACT BRIEF

Was 1934 the hottest year in the global record?

By Gigafact on 07/08/2025

Friday, June 13, 2025

NO

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.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

National Drought Mitigation Center The Dust Bowl
World Meteorological Organization State of the Global Climate 2024
The Climate Brink Which was warmer: the 1930s or the last 10 years
PolitiFact 1936 in the United States was “much hotter than 2023."
EPA Climate Change Indicators: U.S. and Global Temperature
NASA Evidence

This fact brief was originally published by Skeptical Science, a member of the Gigafact network.

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