2015 > How Hot Was It?

Source: NOAA

2015 Was the Hottest Year on Record, by a Stunning Margin.
We actually broke the record for breaking records.
A powerful El Niño is largely responsible for the year’s extremes, but make no mistake: This is what global warming looks like. Temperatures are rising 10 times faster than during the bounce back from the last ice age. Fifteen of the hottest 16 years on record have come in the 21st century.

According to a report  by Tom Randall and Blackie Magliozzi yesterday from Bloomberg Business The heat during 2015 was relentless. Monthly records were broken for every month except January (second hottest) and April (third hottest), according to data from NOAA. The year ended with an exclamation point in December, recording the most extreme departure for any month on record.
Results from the world’s top monitoring agencies vary slightly, but NASA, NOAA, the Japan Meteorological Agency, and the U.K.'s Met Office all agree: 2015 was unprecedented. The heat was experienced differently around the world, but most regions were unusually warm to downright scorching for much of the year.
Up Next: More Broken Records.
The current El Niño has been a bit unusual in that it seemed to start in 2014 before faltering and re-emerging in 2015, said Kevin Trenberth, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. As a result, the warming that typically comes after an El Niño may have already occurred, Trenberth said. "If I had to guess, 2015 will probably beat out 2016."
So 2016 might set another record. Or it might not. But one thing is certain: It won't be normal. Those days are behind us.






January 20, 2016