In a joint command this morning , NASA and NOAAconfirmedthat 2015 was the hottest class on record by a huge margin . We basically fuck this — scientistshavebeencalling itsinceat least July — but now that the official numbers are in , we can seejust how wacky a yr it was .
“ 2015 was by far the hottest class on the record we ’ve put together , ” Gavin Schmidt , director of NASA ’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies said in a pressure conference this morning . “ Even without El Niño , this would have been the warmest year on record . We ’re looking at at long - terminal figure trend , and this is just a symptom . ”
For the first time this year , the global average temperature was unambiguously 1 arcdegree Celsius warmer than the 19th century average , placing the planet midway to the 2 degrees C globular thaw target climate scientist say we call for to stay below to head off catastrophic mood alteration . To stay below that 2 degrees C target , Schmidt says , the reality would want to cut fogey fuel pulmonary tuberculosis “ pretty much starting now , at historically unprecedented rates . ”
As we’vebeen reporting throughout the twelvemonth , ten out of twelve calendar month in 2015 — every calendar month except January and April — broke its various monthly temperature record . concord to Schmidt , many monthly disk were excel by a much larger margin than they ’d been broken in former twelvemonth .
NASA , NOAA , and UK Met Office ball-shaped temperature anomaly , dating back to 1880 . Via NASA
And thanks to El Niño , 2015 went out guns blazing : December 2015was the most anomalously red-hot month of any in history , at 1.11 ° C ( 2.00 ° F ) warmer than its monthly norm . ( Remember ourJuly - flavored Christmas ? It was n’t just the northeastern US . ) As NASA and NOAA emphasise today , whether or not 2015 had been an El Niño year , it would have been a roaster .
2015 swiped the warmest - twelvemonth - in - history titlefrom 2014 , but it might not keep the disc for long . We ’re starting 2016 out with themost extreme El Niño conditions in story , and we can expect more monthly records to be obliterated as the winter continues . “ The factors causing this trend are continuing to accelerate , ” Schmidt said , adding that there ’s “ no evidence that the prospicient - term trend has paused , slack , or hiatused anytime in the last few decades . ”
“ We prognosticate that 2016 is to be an exceptionally fond class , and perhaps even another disk , ” he said .
Hold onto your butts : the hereafter ’s just starting to ignite up .
Top image via Scientific Visualization Studio / Goddard Space Flight Center
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