NASA illustration showing 2015 was the warmest year since modern record-keeping began in 1880. Most of this increase has occurred since 1981, and 15 of the 16 hottest years on record have happened since the turn of the century.
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Climate researchers from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have said that 2015 was the hottest year ever recorded and that 2016 is set to be even hotter. Schmidt adds, “The reason this is such a record warm year is the long-term underlying trend and there is no evidence that long term trend has slowed, paused or hiatused at any point in the past two decades”. The globally averaged sea surface temperature was 1.33F degrees above the 20th Century average. By contrast, more than a century has passed since the globe had a record cold year (1911).
Also, Schmidt reminds us, even incremental changes of one degree can have an impact on weather and ecosystems, noting that in many places around the world, glaciers are retreating.
Speaking to Doha News, Abdulla Al Mannai, head of forecasting and analysis at the Qatar Meteorology Department (MET), said temperature averages for some days were higher than usual.
Meanwhile, ten of 2015’s monthly global temperatures broke or tied with existing global heat records, too, the agencies announced. The continental US saw its second-highest recorded temperature past year; 2012 still holds the record for the highest average temperature.
This news is especially timely in that it comes right after the 2015 Paris climate talks, where representatives from 195 countries agreed to address climate change by curbing carbon emissions. “That boost of warmth however sits upon the ramp of global warming”.
Last month, world leaders including Taoiseach Enda Kenny, met at global climate change summit COP21, where they set a threshold of trying to avoid warming of 1.5 degrees.
Scientists aid the odds of having back-to-back record years are very low.
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An El Niño pattern, which is marked by above-normal water temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean, will contribute to a warming of the global mean temperature, Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said.
