NOAA and NASA both announced on Wednesday that 2015 was officially the hottest year in the 136 years of record keeping – and by a wide margin. Compared to 2014, previous year was 0.29 Fahrenheit (0.13 Celsius) warmer, the “largest margin by which the annual global temperature record has been broken”.
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This means that the planet is already halfway toward the internationally-accepted redline of a 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit rise in average global surface temperatures above the pre-industrial levels.
NASA and NOAA maintain long-term temperature records based on measurements from thousands of weather stations, ship- and buoy-based observations of sea surface temperatures, and temperature measurements from Antarctic research stations. The pattern Oklahoma has seen over the past six years mirrors an intense drought the state saw in the 1950s, before the effects of climate change began.
The agency confirmed its earlier expectation that 2015 was the warmest year since accurate records have been kept, starting in 1880, for the globally averaged temperature. NOAA put the number at above 99 percent – or “virtually certain”, said Tom Karl, director of NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.
El Niño, which was in effect in the Pacific Ocean, also greatly contributed to the warming of the earth previous year.
“This record year really is just emphasizing the fact that there is a very, very strong long-term trend in temperature that we have associated very strongly with the human emissions of greenhouse gases”, Schmidt said.
The current El Nino started towards the end of 2015 and is expected to last until spring 2016. Asia and South America had their warmest years and Africa and Europe their second warmest.
The global ocean temperature during December was the highest on record. Fifteen of the 16 hottest years on record occurred between 2001 and 2015, but 2015 was still a standout.
“This trend will continue; it will continue because we understand why it’s happening”.
The modern climate record begins in 1880.
The coldest year on record was 1911, while the coldest month ever recorded was December 1916.
However, they added that 2015 was “remarkable” even in the context ofEl Niño, and that the overall trend toward the warming of the planet was undeniable.
The World Meteorological Organization also reports that 2011-15 has been the warmest five-year period on record.
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A National Climate Assessment study of tree rings, ice cores, and corals showed that temperatures over the last several decades are “clearly unusual”, and warmer than any time in the last 1300 years, “or longer”. 10 of the 12 months in 2015 set the record for their hottest respective months.
