Putting a short-term trend in context. There was a brief temperature decline after 2016, which was the warmest year on record, reflecting the very strong El Niño event in progress. Similar short-term declines have followed past El Niños, such as the ones in 1973, 1983 and 1998 (highlighted with blue boxes). Data source: NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. (Download video)