Heat Beats Heat

According to a report by NASA, the first three months of this year were the hottest on record. They beat the previous record set only a year ago, in 2015, by a staggering .39°C ( 0.7°F). To put it in perspective, records such as this are normally measured in the hundredths of a degree, making this rise in temperature incredibly alarming.

To be clear, this past February was the hottest February ever on record, which was followed by the hottest recorded January ever. October, November, and December of 2015 were also the hottest....basically, almost every month sets a record.

Ultimately, this 6-month stretch was capped off by March’s record-breaking heat according to the Japan Meteorological Agency’s (JMA) dataset. And if that's not enough, last month was 1.07°C above the 20th century average according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Image credit: WMA

El Niño

This past winter has been blisteringly hot, to the point that Greenland’s summer melt season was forcibly jump-started and 12 percent of Greenland’s ice sheet already melted as of last Monday.

There’s an obvious trend here with 2014’s temperatures being beat by 2015, while 2016 is already primed to overtake 2015’s records. And then there is the issue with the fading El Niño. Jumps in temperature like this are typical of El Niño season, regardless of how short it is, because of long-term global warming. But these recent spikes blow away any other records.

We’re truly bound for a hotter world. Oh, and in before the "scientists are adjusting global temperature records and lying" people.


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