2015 was the hottest year on record — NOAA and NASA

NASA and NOAA announced today that 2015 was the hottest year on record. C (2.00 deg. F.) above the 20th century average for global land/ocean surface temperature, which beat the previous December record set a year ago by a whopping 0.29 deg.

Skeptics also argued that climate models show that last year’s temperatures should have been even higher, given the El Nino factor.

“Climate change is the challenge of our generation”, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said.

The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says 2015’s average temperature was 58.62F (14.79C).

WASHINGTON (AP) — Last year wasn’t just the Earth’s hottest year on record — it left a century of high temperature marks in the dust. Moreover, the latest finding adds to a steady rise in heat across land and sea surfaces that have seen records repeatedly broken over the years.

Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael E. Mann determined if longterm global warming did not exist, the chances of having back-to-back record-breaking years would be one in every 1,500 pairs of years. Temperatures in 2015 were slightly cooler in Northern Europe and Ireland, while much of Eastern Europe was hotter than usual, according to the World Meteorological Organization. “There is no evidence that that long-term trend has slowed, paused, or hiatused over the last several decades”. The last time a global cold month record was set was December 1916 and the coldest year on record was 1911, according to NOAA.

“This trend will continue; it will continue because we understand why it’s happening”, Gavin Schmidt, director of the NASA Goddard Institute of Space Studies, told the Associated Press.

NOAA said 10 months past year registered as the hottest for their respective months.

Another reason for last year’s record-setting high temperature is the El Niño weather pattern, which is marked by shifting trade winds on the Pacific Ocean that warm ocean temperatures and cause dramatic weather changes.

This is a key milestone as world leaders have set a threshold of trying to avoid warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius above that historical average. The leading Republicans in the race for president issued no reactions to the news.

While the warming El Niño we’re still experiencing into 2016 is formative, it’s a recurring weather cycle contributing only partially to the bigger picture: that carbon emissions from humans are dramatically changing our climate and environment.

“This planet and its people are in trouble” he warned.

Meanwhile, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who’s running for the Democratic presidential nomination, declared that “the debate is over”. The burning of the oil, gas and coal for energy releases “greenhouse” gases such as carbon dioxide and methane.