One of the biggest mysteries of modern climate science may never have really existed, updated climate analyses suggest.
Following decades of warming and a hot 1998, Earth’s average surface temperature seemingly plateaued. This warming hiatus, as it came to be known, had climate researchers scrambling for an explanation. Now measurements and analysis by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggest that the apparent hiatus was not an actual climate trend. Instead, it was an artifact of incomplete and biased data.