NOAA reported last year’s average temperature for the Earth as a whole was 58.62 degrees Fahrenheit – that’s 0.29 degrees higher than the previous year.
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That was 1.62F above the 20th century average and 0.29F above 2014, according to NOAA. “But having 2015 as the warmest year on record by far, following the record year of 2014, dispatches altogether that notion, or any sense, that global warming might have stopped”, Trenberth said.
In addition, the clear reason behind the increase of 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit since the late 19th century is mainly “increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere”, NASA said.
Regions of eastern and southern Africa experienced more blistering heat than ever, as did large parts of the northeastern and equatorial Pacific boosted by the El Nino weather phenomenon. “And it’s going to be very hard for that not to continue into at least the first part of next year because, in particular, the ocean temperatures are so warm”, Thomas Karl, director of the NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, told the BBC.
“2015 was remarkable even in the context of the ongoing El Niño”, NASA researcher Gavin Schmidt said in a statement.
Measurements from Japan, the United Kingdom, and the University of California at Berkeley also show 2015 to be the warmest on record.
Yes, it’s official now that 2015 was globally the warmest year.
While the trend toward global warming has been accepted by the majority of scientists for some time, it seemed to slow somewhat near the end of the 20th century, leading some to suspect a “pause” in climate change was occurring. “If 2016 turns out to be as warm as we anticipate, that would be unprecedented in our record book”.
It also means that global populations under 38 years old have lived their entire lives in higher-than-average temperatures, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), a scientific advisory organization.
Previous year was a historic one for climate change. “Now we don’t expect it to last, but it will add to the global warming picture”, said Herbert.
Still, not every place on the planet had its hottest year.
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NOAA scientists concur with the finding that 2015 was the warmest year on record based on separate, independent analyses of the data.
