Earth Had Its Hottest Year on Record in 2015, Says NASA, NOAA

The American space agency says the average temperatures of the world recorded in 2015 were 0.13 Celsius (0.23 degrees Fahrenheit) higher compared to those set in 2014. This was the first time such as a large increase in record temperatures was detected since 1998.

However, the drought was only part of the reason for the rising temperatures, as explained by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) director Gavin Schmidt in an official press release from NASA.

A year ago was the hottest on Earth since record-keeping began in 1880, scientists reported on Wednesday, continuing a steady long-term warming trend spurred by the burning of fossil fuels.

The oceanic-atmospheric phenomenon El Niño, which is characterized by above-normal water temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean, will contribute significantly to this warming of the global mean temperature.

The report added that since 1997, which at the time was the hottest year on record, 16 of the following 18 years have each been warmer than that year.

Past year marked the fourth time a global temperature record has been set this century. This was the highest among all years in the 1880-2015 record, surpassing the previous record of 2007 by 0.45 degrees.

In 2015, the average temperature on land and ocean surfaces around the world was “1.62° F (0.90° C) above the 20th century average”, according to NOAA. Few months ago, scientists started predicting a global temperature record because of the El Niño weather pattern, one of the largest in a century. Most of the planet’s warming occurred in the last 35 years, according to NOAA and NASA.

Not surprisingly, snow cover also shrunk previous year: the average annual Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent during 2015 was 9.5 million square miles, the smallest amount since 2008.

“2015 was remarkable even in the context of the ongoing El Nino”, Schmidt said, in the statement.

Globally, 10 months in 2015 tied or broke monthly temperature records, culminating in a December that was more than half a degree Fahrenheit warmer than its predecessor in 2014 – a record margin, NOAA says.

Even the El Niño, which can a considerable effect on short-term variations in global-average temperatures, isn’t enough to write off the results.

NOAA’s announcement came against the backdrop of the recently completed Paris climate talks, at which the goal of capping global warming at 2 deg C above pre-industrial levels was enshrined.