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

According to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s data, the land and ocean temperatures were 1.62 degrees above average globally, which smashes the previous record for largest temperature increase.

Only once before, in 1998, has the new record been greater than the old record by this much, it said.

Since 1880, Earth’s average surface temperature is up about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1.0 Celsius). But scientists say human activities – notably burning fossil fuels – were the main driver behind the rise. Measurements from Japan and the University of California at Berkeley also show 2015 is the warmest on record. Since 1880, Earth’s average surface temperature has warmed by about 1.5 degrees. “Its nearly unusual when were not breaking a record.”Scientists blame a combination of El Nino and increasing man-made global warming.

Currently, President Barack Obama has been making efforts to counter climate change, including signing a pact with other countries in Paris recently in a landmark agreement to work to mitigate the causes of climate change and the effects of global warming.

Sundt called for a faster move to a low-carbon economy built on renewable energy sources.

But according to Tom Karl, director of NOAA National Centres for Environmental Information, new heat records would have been set even without El Nino, which leads to warmer waters in the equatorial Pacific.

“This trend will continue; it will continue because we understand why it’s happening”, Schmidt said.

“Since 1997, which at the time was the warmest year on record, 16 of the subsequent 18 years have been warmer than that year”, said the NOAA report. For example, NASA and NOAA found that the 2015. The result of these calculations is an estimate of the global average temperature difference from a baseline period of 1951 to 1980.

Scientists began monitoring worldwide temperatures since 1880.

NOAA and NASA both announced on Wednesday that 2015 was officially the hottest year in the 136 years of record keeping – and by a wide margin. 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. Because weather station locations and measurements change over time, there is some uncertainty in the individual values in the GISTEMP index.