NOAA and NASA: 2015 was the hottest year on record

NOAA and NASA: 2015 was the hottest year on record

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This illustration obtained from NASA shows that 2015 was the warmest year since modern record-keeping began in 1880, according to a new analysis by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
(AFP/Getty Images)

Deborah Netburn Contact Reporter

2015 was Earth's hottest year on record, according to new data released Wednesday by NOAA and NASA.

For the last 12 months the average surface temperature across the globe was 58.47 Fahrenheit, a 0.23-degree increase from 2014's record-breaking average temperature of 58.24, the two agencies reported.

That is 1.24 degrees above the 20th century average of 57 degrees Fahrenheit. Earth's temperature has grown 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit since the late 19th century.

Although that temperature increase may seem small, it is still significant, experts said.

"2015 was remarkable even in the context of the ongoing El Niño," said Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York in a statement. "Last year's temperature had an assist from El Niño but it is the cumulative effect of the long-term trend that has resulted in the record warming that we are seeing."

The new numbers confirm long-term warming trends predicted by scientists, and were almost certainly caused in part by human activities, researchers said.

The first detailed global temperature measurements were recorded in 1880. Since then, nine of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2002, according to NOAA. (The other top 10 hottest year, 1998, ranks fifth in the record books, in part because of a particularly strong El Niño phase.)

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The Japan Meteorological Agency has published similar, preliminary,findings on its website, based on data collected from January through November of 2015. Their results also show 2015 will be the warmest year since 1891.

Earlier this month NOAA announced that the average temperature for the U.S. in 2015 was 54.4 degrees, making it the second warmest year in 121 years of record-keeping in the lower 48 states.

http://www.latimes.com/science/scien...119-story.html

1st half of 2016 warmest on record

By Eleanor Imster in Earth | July 21, 2016

The 6-month period from January to June was our planet’s warmest half-year in the modern temperature record, which dates to 1880.

https://youtu.be/JK7NV2YheGk

According to a report from NASA on Monday (July 19, 2016) two key indicators of climate change – global surface temperatures and Arctic sea ice extent – have broken records in the first half of 2016.

Each of the first six months of 2016 set a record as the warmest respective month globally in the modern temperature record, which dates to 1880, according to scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York. Also, the six-month period as a whole – from January to June – was the warmest half-year on record. The average temperature for the 2016’s first half was 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.4 degrees F.) warmer than the late nineteenth century.

Another record that was broken in 2016’s first half is the Arctic sea ice extent – the measurement of the area of the Arctic Ocean where there is at least some sea ice. Five of the first six months of 2016 set records for the smallest respective monthly Arctic sea ice extent since satellites started keeping track in 1979, according to NASA analyses. The one exception, March, recorded the second smallest extent for that month.


According to the NASA statement:

While these two key climate indicators have broken records in 2016, NASA scientists said it is more significant that global temperature and Arctic sea ice are continuing their decades-long trends of change. Both trends are ultimately driven by rising concentrations of heat-trapping carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

http://en.es-static.us/upl/2016/07/s...8956056228.jpgChunks of sea ice, melt ponds and open water are all seen in this image captured at an altitude of 1,500 feet by the NASA’s Digital Mapping System instrument during an Operation IceBridge flight over the Chukchi Sea on Saturday, July 16, 2016. Image via NASA/Goddard/Operation IceBridge”

The extent of Arctic sea ice at the peak of the summer melt season now covers about 40 percent less area than it did in the late 1970s and early 1980s, says NASA. Arctic sea ice extent in September, the seasonal low point in the annual cycle, has been declining at a rate of 13.4 percent per decade.
http://en.es-static.us/upl/2016/07/2...8956264297.pngThe first six months of 2016 were the warmest six-month period in NASA’s modern temperature record, which dates to 1880. Image via NASA/Goddard Institute for Space Studies

Walt Meier is a sea ice scientist at NASA Goddard. He said that he global trend in rising temperatures is outpaced by the regional warming in the Arctic. Meier said:

It has been a record year so far for global temperatures, but the record high temperatures in the Arctic over the past six months have been even more extreme. This warmth as well as unusual weather patterns have led to the record low sea ice extents so far this year.

Bottom line: Two key indicators of climate change – global surface temperatures and Arctic sea ice extent – have broken numerous records through the first half of 2016, according to NASA.

http://earthsky.org/earth/first-6-mo...mest-on-record

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