2015 was more than a quarter of a degree Fahrenheit warmer than the last global heat record -- set in 2014.
BloombergBusiness reports the year just ended was the world’s hottest ever recorded — by a substantial margin. Monthly records were broken for every month except January (second hottest) and April (third hottest), according to data from the NOAA. And 2016 ended with an exclamation point in December, marking the most extreme departure for any month on record.
The extremes were in part attributable to the El Nino weather pattern originating in the South Pacific, but U.S. scientists are pointing to the root cause… saying, in effect, this is what global warming looks like. Temperatures are rising faster than during the earth’s recovery from the last ice age.
Because of the residual effects of El Nino, 2016 might set another record. Or it might not. “But one thing is certain,” says the Bloomberg report. “It won’t be normal; those days are behind us.”