Blistering heat blanketed the Earth in 2015 like never before, making it by far the hottest year by the widest margin on record, and reflecting a continued long-term warming trend in global climate change.
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The calculations are in, and 2015 was the warmest year on record, ever since data collection on the planet’s surface land and ocean temperatures began in 1880, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Wednesday. Last year’s average temperatures eclipsed the previous record year, which was – you guessed it – 2014. In 2014, global temperatures were 0.13 Celsius warmer, leaving a huge margin between 2014 and 2015 temperatures. As the NASA report revealed, the average surface temperature across the world has increased by a steep 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit or 1.0 degree Celsius in the past century. “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”, GISS Director Gavin Schmidt said in a statement.
Scientists have predicted climate change could bring longer, more intense periods of drought to Oklahoma, punctuated by periods of heavy rainfall and flooding.
Weather dynamics often affect regional temperatures, so not every region on Earth experienced record average temperatures past year.
NOAA says it release it monthly and annual reports to help organizations, government agencies, companies and people plan for climate.
For the U.S., December 2015 holds the dubious distinction of being the only month ever records to be both the hottest and the wettest.
Karl, however, said 2015 would have likely been a record even without El Nino.
And in NY in December, temperatures were warm enough that many were in spring clothing.
2015 was Earth’s hottest year on record, according to new data released Wednesday by NOAA and NASA.
The majority of the global warming took place in the past 35 years.
Measurements from Japan, the United Kingdom and the University of California at Berkeley also show 2015 is the warmest on record.
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Climate science deals in long-term trends, he said, so researchers decades from now may find a connection between Oklahoma’s 2015 floods and warming global temperatures.
