The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) gave the official word this week: 2015 was the Earth’s warmest year by the widest margin on record—and temperatures in December 2015 were the highest for any month on record.
According to NOAA:
During 2015, the average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.62°F (0.90°C) above the 20th century average. This was the highest among all 136 years in the 1880–2015 record, surpassing the previous record set last year by 0.29°F (0.16°C) and marking the fourth time a global temperature record has been set this century. This is also the largest margin by which the annual global temperature record has been broken.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
According to NOAA, 2015 was the warmest year on record.
According to NOAA, the combined land and water temperatures in December 2015 were the highest on record for any month in the 136-year record.
They also released a map of climate events and anomalies for the year.
Selected climate events and anomalies in 2015.
The agency reports that the average annual Northern Hemisphere snow cover for the year was 9.5 million miles – the 11th smallest annual snow cover extent since records began in 1968 and smallest since 2008.
In New Mexico this winter has been feeling like…well, winter.
The National Weather Service in Albuquerque reports that all of our snow basins are currently above normal for the winter.
That’s a good thing.
But that doesn’t mean anyone should forget that globally, on average, temperatures are still rising.
To read NOAA’s full 2015 report, visit: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/201513 or to read the summary, click: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/summary-info/global/201512