2015 was the hottest year on record, 2016 likely to be worse

2015 was by far the hottest year in modern times and raised new concerns about the accelerating pace of climate change, says an AFP report.

Not only was 2015 the warmest worldwide since 1880, it shattered the previous record held in 2014 by the widest margin ever observed, says AFP quoting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"During 2015, the average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.62 Fahrenheit (0.90 Celsius) above the 20th century average," said the NOAA report.
"This was the highest among all years in the 1880-2015 record."

2015 was 0.29 Farenheit (0.13 Celsius) warmer than 2014, the report said. This is the largest margin by which the annual global temperature record has been broken.

The US space agency NASA, which monitors global climate using a fleet of satellites and weather stations, confirmed that last year broke records for heat in contemporary times.
NASA said that the temperature changes are largely driven by increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere.

"Climate change is the challenge of our generation,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

"Today’s announcement not only underscores how critical NASA’s Earth observation program is, it is a key data point that should make policymakers stand up and take notice -- now is the time to act on climate."

"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.

2015 was the fourth time that a global temperature record had been set in the 21st century. Additionally, ten of the 12 months last year were the hottest on record.

The heat was felt worldwide, with unprecedented warmth covering much of Central America and the northern half of South America, says the AFP report.

Hot temperatures were observed in parts of northern, southern and eastern Europe as well as western Asia and a large section of east-central Siberia.

Regions of eastern and southern Africa experienced more scorching days than ever, as did large parts of the northeastern and equatorial Pacific boosted by the El Nino weather phenomenon.

In the backdrop of the Paris climate change summit, it is to be noted that the 2 degree limit on increasing temperature set by the summit has already been halfway reached.

As a result, melting ice sheets and warming oceans will lead to rising seas in the coming years, says the AFP report.
Rain will become heavier and some storms more severe as the globe heats up, and cold snaps may become rarer.

"This trend will continue," said Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies to AFP.

What's worse, 2016 is likely to be hotter than the previous year, said Gavin Schmidt.