Topping those records, NOAA announced that the first eight months of 2015 have also set a record for the hottest period both on land and the sea, according to the Associated Press.
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Records have been kept of monthly measurements from land and sea dating back to 1880. Record warmth was observed across much of South America, and parts of Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the western contiguous U.S.
The continual dominoing broken heat records risk swirling into sweaty monotony, and this week may have been no different, if it weren’t for the three-in-one August news-and that 11 Republican Congressmen issued a resolution proclaiming that climate change is real and worth addressing. Five of those months also happen to be among the 10 most freakishly warm months that NCEI has ever recorded. Globally the summer of 2015, which ends September 23, will go down as the hottest in 135 years of recorded data. It follows the hottest calendar year (2014), and the hottest decade. In a graphic showing the six hottest years on record that Arndt likened to a horse race, it’s clear that 2015 is the American Pharaoh of global heat. “We would have to see some really unusual [cold]”, he said.
Researchers have calculated it is 97 percent likely that 2015 will be the warmest ever recorded, Arndt said.
August was 1.58 degrees warmer than the average monthly temperature for the entire 20th century and surpassed August 2014 as the warmest on record.
“In other words, it appears extremely unlikely that 2015 will lose its commanding lead”. But heat records are a different matter. Arndt said El Niño is essentially helping the planet stand on its tippy toes to set a record.
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The numbers come as the issue of global warming surfaces in the presidential race.
