The bad news on the world’s record-setting temperatures just keeps on rising, and climate scientists have ominous predictions for this year.
Last month was the hottest March in 137 years of tracking, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, making it 11 straight months that the Earth hit record highs in average temperature.
Even more alarming has been the world’s average temperature for the first three months of this year, as it hit around 2.07 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average, said the NOAA. This marked the highest temperature ever recorded for that time window, beating last year’s temperature average by 0.50 degrees Fahrenheit.
This has got climate scientists like Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, predicting that 2016 will set new records:
Too soon? I estimate >99% chance of an annual record in 2016 in @NASAGISS temperature data, based on Jan-Mar alone pic.twitter.com/mEDvHxfmjj
— Gavin Schmidt (@ClimateOfGavin) April 15, 2016
@ClimateOfGavin@NASAGISS Same prediction using for the RSS Microwave Lower Troposphere Temps. pic.twitter.com/2onMNvI1Mj
— Daniel Kirk-Davidoff (@dankd) April 20, 2016
This follows a string of reports that global warming because of manmade factors has been accelerating in recent years. In March, a group of leading scientists—including Dr. James Hansen, widely regarded as the first person to have raised awareness on climate change—issued a report warning that the effects of global warming could come quicker and at a far bigger impact than originally thought.
Earlier in January, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research concluded that it was with “extremely high likelihood” that the current run of record-high temperatures—with 13 of the 15 warmest years having occurred since 2000—have happened because of greenhouse-gas emissions.