2015 the Hottest Year on Record

The news is not exactly a surprise, given that climate scientists projected the year would claim this ominous title as early as last August, which was, if you’ll recall, the most sweltering month on record.

Meteorologists from United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA have recently confirmed that Earth’s has reached the highest temperature on record previous year. And it beat the previous 2014 record by roughly one quarter of a degree, the second-largest year-over-year margin. “Past year was the first time the global average temperatures were 1 degree Celsius or more above the 1880-1899 average”, NASA said in a news release.

2015 was 0.29 Farenheit (0.13 Celsius) warmer than 2014, the report said.

Scientists peg the warming surface temperatures on human-made carbon emissions causing climate change as well as natural phenomenon such as the El Niño weather system which warms the waters of the Pacific Ocean near the equator. Because the year is starting off with a very strong El Nino, Schmidt says, “2016 is expected to be again, an exceptionally warm year, perhaps even a record”. But Gavin Schmidt of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies said in the same release that the changes were remarkable, even with El Niño factored in.

The planet’s average surface temperature – 58.62 degrees last year – is up about 1.8 degrees since the late 19th century, with most of that warming occurring in the past 35 years.

The short video illustrates the change in temperatures by using an orange coloured graphic which increases in density as the years go by.

It’s official: 2015 was Earth’s hottest year on record. “The reason why this is such a warm record year is because of the long-term underlying trend, and there is no evidence that long-term trend has slowed, paused or hiatused at any point in the last few decades”.

Scientists began recording instrument readings of surface temperature in 1880.

“The announcement doesn’t come as a surprise, as month after month records were being broken all around the world”.

Despite the cold start to the year in parts of eastern North America, the continent as a whole experienced its fifth warmest year on record.