NOAA, NASA: 2015 was Earth’s hottest by a wide margin

NOAA said 2015’s average temperature was 58.62 degrees Fahrenheit (14.79 C), passing 2014 by a record margin of 0.29 F (0.17 C).

Last year’s global temperatures broke the record set in 2014 by 0.23 degrees Fahrenheit (0.13 Celsius)-only the second time in modern history-the first being in 1998-that a new record was this much greater than the previous one.

Annual temperatures in the Northeast, including Central New York, were constrained by the record cold February, which was 16.7 degrees below normal.

WASHINGTON-Last year wasn’t just the Earth’s hottest year on record, it left a century of high temperature marks in the dust.

The government agencies’ twin announcement today followed early bird reports in November from the United Nation’s weather agency that found 2015 to be an extremely warm year, enough to best 2014’s record heat.

Not surprisingly, snow cover also shrunk a year ago: the average annual Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent during 2015 was 9.5 million square miles, the smallest amount since 2008. A warming El Niño was in effect for most of 2015. For the most part, scientists at the agencies and elsewhere blamed man-made global warming, with a boost from El Nino.

NOAA experts say this is a continuation of a long-term trend. And while the noted weather patterns caused chaos in the U.S.in terms of floods and disasters elsewhere in the world, including droughts in southern Africa, it is human emissions of greenhouse gases that have driven these record-setting temperatures, according to scientists.

Many scientists say the planet is already about halfway to that milestone, with no sign of slowing down. “A massive ramp-up of renewable- and low-carbon- energy will be essential to stay within 2°C of warming and avoid new records being set”.

Because of the strong El Nino influence at the beginning of this year, “2016 is expected to be an exceptionally warm year and perhaps even another record”, he told reporters.

“We had a hard time digging out of that hole”, said Samantha Borisoff, a climatologist with the Northeast Regional Climate Center in Ithaca.

Global warming “can’t be turned around instantly”, said Schmidt.

NOAA scientists agreed with the finding that 2015 was the warmest year on record based on separate, independent analyses of the data.

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