The Planet Set Three Major Heat Records In August

Like a broken record, we are breaking records for temperature over and over and over again. NOAA’s latest monthly State of the Climate Report reports that the Earth just experienced the hottest August on record, the hottest summer (June to August) on record, and the hottest year to date.

And it wasn’t even close. Each of those records was broken by 0.18°F (or more). So, yes, 2015 is going to be the hottest year on record — by far. Last month, climate scientist Jessica Blunden, who works with NOAA, said it’s “99 percent certain that it’s going to be the warmest year on record.” That is crystal clear from this NOAA chart:

Year-to-date temperature anomalies for 2015 (black line) to the six warmest years on record: 2014, 2010, 2013, 2005, 2009, and 1998 (via NOAA). Each month along each trace represents the year-to-date average temperature: The January value is the January anomaly (departure from the 20th century average temperature), the February value is the average of both January and February, and so on.

Again, there never was any slowdown in surface temperature warming. This year won’t just top the previous global temperature record set just last year, 2015 will crush 2014. That’s especially likely since the strong underlying global warming trend is being boosted by an emerging “Godzilla El Niño,” as a NASA oceanographer put it.

Bottom line: 2014 was the hottest year on record. 2015 will easily top that. And 2016 may well beat 2015, as discussed here. The long-awaited speed up in global warming is at hand.