A White-Hot Christmas Wraps Up Earth’s Hottest Year on Record
Frosty didn’t stand a chance.
This has been by far the hottest year on record, and it’s ending with an exclamation point. Holiday shoppers in New York’s Rockefeller Center have been checking off their lists in weather that’s an eerie 20 degrees warmer than normal. Meanwhile, another stack of global temperature records has fallen.
Last month was the hottest November in 136 years of data, according to U.S. figures released on Thursday, making it the ninth record-breaking month of 2015. This year has been so far off the charts, it’s certain to go down as the hottest year on record even if December turns out to be unusually cool (it won’t).
El Niño is largely responsible for this year’s extremes, but make no mistake: This is what global warming looks like. Before this year, 13 of the 14 hottest years fell in the 21st century. The thermometer creep is relentless. The animation below shows the earth’s warming climate, recorded in monthly measurements from land and sea dating back to 1880. Temperatures are displayed in degrees above or below the 20th century average.
Last month wasn’t just the hottest October on record—it was the second-biggest departure from normal for any month in the past 136 years, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Results from the world’s top monitoring agencies vary slightly, but right now NOAA, the Japan Meteorological Agency, and NASA are all in agreement: This October was the worst.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-12-17/a-white-hot-christmas-wraps-up-earth-s-hottest-year-on-record
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