This Year on Track to Be Hottest for Planet

It’s time to conclude that 2015 has been a record hot year. Plus, no snow for Christmas for many, sadly.

According to 136 years of US meteorological records, last month was the hottest November since record-keeping began. November is the ninth record hot month of 2015, which will almost certainly – as chances of a frosty and snowy Christmas and New Year’s Eve in much of the planet are close to zero – show this year to break all high temperature records, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

In news that will surprise almost no one, the planet is record hot https://t.co/Nux8cOFA0Q pic.twitter.com/7AJUgx6ChJ

— ClimateCentral (@ClimateCentral) December 17, 2015

This is how the notorious global warming effects of climate change feel: 13 of the 14 years with the highest temperatures have occurred in the 21st century. This year’s heat has, in part, caused a sensationally active El Niño ocean temperature warming pattern, the effects of which will be felt around the world.

According to a recent report, air temperatures over land across the Arctic region were 1.3 degrees above average in 2015, breaking 115 years of record keeping.

A long-awaited climate change agreement signed in Paris by 195 nations last weekend calls for all parties to do everything necessary to keep the average global temperature increase to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius, above pre-industrial levels. The text urges signatories to “pursue efforts” to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

On Saturday, negotiators agreed to curb emissions beyond 2020 and  transition to a global clean energy economy after two weeks of tough negotiations marked by disagreements between developed and developing countries.