(Bloomberg) -- Last month wasn’t just the hottest June on record — it continued the longest-ever streak of record-breaking months: 14.
It’s no longer a question of whether 2016 will be the hottest on record, but by how much.
The start of summer in the Northern Hemisphere gave us the hottest June since 1880, according to data released Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). That follows the hottest May, April, March, February, January, December, November, October, September, August, and July. Before June 2016, June 2015 held the monthly record, as did May 2015.
Last year’s massive El Niño warming pattern in the Pacific Ocean is over, but unprecedented heat remains across the planet. The extremes of recent months are such that we’re only halfway into 2016 and there’s already a greater than 99% likelihood that this year will be the hottest on record, according to Gavin Schmidt, who directs NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. NASA and NOAA maintain independent records of the Earth’s temperatures, but they both agree that last month was a scorcher.
|3rd year to set a new global heat record
This year is on track to be the third consecutive year to set a new global heat record — the first time that’s ever happened. So far, 15 of the hottest 16 years ever measured have come in the 21st century. Results from the world’s chief monitoring agencies vary slightly. The Japan Meteorological Agency said last month was tied with June 2015 for that month’s record. Nevertheless, all agree that the extremes of 2016 are unrivaled in the modern climate record.
The heat was experienced differently across the world, but felt to some degree almost everywhere. The dark red swaths in the map below show areas that set new records.
Some of this is still the result of El Niño, which releases heat from the Pacific that typically lingers for months after the underlying conditions subside. Those conditions may soon shift to a cooling La Niña, according to NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center. The agency gives a roughly 60% chance of a La Niña pattern developing in the fall or winter. That, however, doesn’t change Earth’s long-term trajectory, or the fact that this summer’s heat is just getting started.
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