The real debate over global warming comes down to whether 2017 was the second- or third-hottest year ever recorded.

On Thursday, NASA released an analysis that found average global temperatures last year were 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the mean between 1951 and 1980. In a companion report, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found, using a different methodology, that surface temperatures were 1.51 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average, ranking the year third warmest behind 2016 and 2015.

Yet scientists at both federal agencies reached the same grave conclusion: The Earth is heating up. The five warmest years on record have all occurred since 2010.

Unlike in 2016 the hottest year on record the 2017 temperature has nothing to do with El Nio, the Pacific Ocean patterns that can cause record-setting warm weather.

Its perhaps a little bit easier to clarify these things when there isnt an El Nio involved, but the planet is warming regardless of whats going on in the tropical Pacific, Gavin Schmidt, director of NASAs Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said in a call with reporters.