2015 – the hottest year in recorded history

Barely a week to go before the major global climate negotiations at Paris comes bad news from the World Meteorological Organisation – 2015 is likely to be the warmest year in recorded history.

“This is due to a combination of a strong El Nino and human-induced global warming,” WMO said in a press release today.

The organisation has estimated that the earth’s temperature is likely to be 1 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial era, (as against the previous estimate of 0.8 degrees.)

The years 2011-2015 have been marked by human-induced extreme weather events, particularly heat waves, the release says, which takes note of a “major heat wave” that swept across India in May and June, killing thousands of people.

Many other countries have been similarly affected. China had its warmest January-to-October period on record. For the continent of Africa, 2015 currently ranks as the second warmest year on record. Australia had its warmest October on record and a heat wave early in the month set new records for early season warmth.

While these countries were warm, cold countries were colder. Eastern areas of north America were colder than average during the year, but none were record cold. After a warm January to September, Argentina experienced its coldest October on record.

"Levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached new highs and in the Northern hemisphere spring 2015 the three-month global average concentration of Co2 crossed the 400 parts per million barrier for the first time,” says WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud. "This is all bad news for the planet."

Dried mud and the remnants of a marina is seen at the New Melones Lake reservoir which is now at less than 20 % capacity as a severe drought continues to affect California on May 24, 2015.

California has recently announced sweeping statewide water restrictions for the first time in history in order to combat the region's devastating drought, the worst since records began.