2015 was hottest on Earth by a wide margin

NASA says the global warming trend has progressed dramatically in recent history, with 15 of the 16 warmest years on record occurring since 2001.

NOAA says 2015’s average temperature was 58.62 degrees, passing 2014 by a record margin of 0.29 degrees.

In December, world leaders meeting in Paris reached a first-ever agreement to limit the planet’s warming temperatures – to 2.7 degrees, or 1.5 degrees Celsius, above pre-industrial levels. 2014 was the previous hottest year on record, with a 1.33 degrees Fahrenheit tally.

2015 was Earth’s hottest year on record, according to new data released Wednesday by NOAA and NASA.

This is the 4th time a new, annual record high global temperature has been set since 2000.

United States scientists said record breaking heat a year ago was only partially attributable to El Nino, a periodic weather cycle in the Pacific.

In fact, USA data suggests that 2015 broke the temperature record by the widest margin ever recorded. “If 2016 turns out to be as warm as we anticipate, that would be unprecedented in our record book”.

“What we will see is more and clearer impacts as we warm”, said Schmidt.

Increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions have aided in increasing Earth’s average surface temperature by about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit since the late 19th Century, according to NASA. Additionally, ten of the 12 months past year were the hottest on record.

“Even without El Nino this would have been the warmest on record”, Schmidt, who directs the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said. “We anticipate that 2016 is to be an exceptionally warm year, and perhaps even another record”.

Rain will become heavier and some storms more severe as the globe heats up, and cold snaps may become rarer. “That boost of warmth however sits upon the ramp of global warming.”And its likely to happen this year, too.

It is official, 2015 was Earth’s warmest year on record since record keeping began in 1880.

Climate monitoring organizations like NOAA, NASA, the Japanese and British meteorological agencies and the World Meteorological Organization, all use ground data when measuring the Earth’s temperature, the Associated Press reports.

“2015 will be hard to beat, but you say that nearly every year and you get surprised”, Gensini said.