Doesn’t it seem like only last week scientists confirmed that 2014 was indeed the hottest year on record? Well, you don’t have to worry about that anymore because scientists have now determined that the first half of 2015 has managed to break all those records—and 2015 will now likely be the hottest year recorded on Earth.
According to a report out today at Climate.gov, June 2015 was the warmest since record-keeping began in 1880, and one of several other record-breaking months this year so far:
In what has become a common refrain this year, yet another month has set a global temperature record, with June 2015 coming in as the warmest June on record going back to 1880. It follows other record or near-record hot months during the first six months of this year, so there’s a good chance 2015 will take 2014’s place atop the podium as the warmest year on record.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released temperature data for June on Monday, ranking it as the warmest June in the books. The month was nearly 1.6°F above the 20th century average for June, according to NOAA, and beat the previous hottest June, which happened just last year, by 0.22°F. (NASA data also ranked June as the warmest on record.)
It gets worse than that. Yes, Earth experiences warm years and cold years, and a few years in a row might be warmer than others, especially due to ocean warming events like El Niño. But it’s not normal to have so many warm years in a row.
Not even including 2015’s record-breaking first-half, 13 of the 15 warmest years on record have happened since 2000: The odds of that happening randomly (as in, not as a result of climate change) is 1 in 27 million.