Was the Warmest Year on Record Globally (But Not in California)

For the first time this year, the global average temperature was unequivocally 1ºC warmer than the 19th century average, placing us halfway to the 2ºC global warming target climate scientists say we need to stay below to avoid catastrophic climate change.

In this slide from NOAA and NASA’s announcement, each month’s global temperature is charted according to how much they departed from 20th century heat average for that month.

Scientists said that a year ago was the planet’s hottest in modern times by the widest margin on record, setting a troubling new milestone as the climate warms at an increasing pace. Because weather station locations and measurements change over time, there is some uncertainty in the individual values in the GISTEMP index.

“This record year really is just emphasizing the fact that there is a very, very strong long-term trend in temperature that we have associated very strongly with the human emissions of greenhouse gases”, Schmidt says.

For instance, while ground measurements show 2015 as being the hottest year on record by far, some satellite measurements have it as only the third-hottest year.

The temperature record will add fuel to a push by Democrats, environmentalists and the Obama administration to confront climate change.

2012-15 were the four warmest years on record in Argentina.

“Climate change is the challenge of our generation”, said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. That’s according to independent analyses done by NASA and NOAA.

Previous year alone, 10 months had record high temperatures for their respective months.

The agency reported, “The a year ago with a below-average temperature was 1996”.

The dataset produced by the Met Office Hadley Centre and the CRU is based on thousands of temperature measurements taken around the world on land and at sea each day, and is one of three major analyses that are used to assess global temperatures. Gavin Schmidt, with NASA, explained that long-term trends made 2015 one of the hottest. NASA shares this unique knowledge with the global community and works with institutions in the United States and around the world that contribute to understanding and protecting our home planet.