2016 was the hottest year on record and broke the record for a third consecutive year. Sixteen of the seventeen hottest record breaking years have occurred since 2000.
Based on historical records, months that come early in the year (such as January, March and February) have continued to move further away from temperature norms. Scientists predict that 2017 will follow the same patterns at a lower level since the strong El Nino weather pattern is dying out.
"Human-induced climate change has made it at least 160 times more likely that three consecutive years after 2000 would be record-setting...“One could argue that about 75 percent of the warmth was due to human impact," -Michael E. Mann
Due to an El Nino climate pattern in the Pacific Ocean, the later months of 2015 and the first half of 2016 experienced faster warming. This is because the climate pattern sent a surge of heat into the atmosphere. Scientists say that the most recent El Nino was among the largest in a century, its peak occurring in the winter of 2015, when temperatures were unusually high. The El Nino pattern began to subside over the course of 2016 however scientists predict that global warming will continue to exceed global records in the years coming due to human impact.
Records of global temperature change are compiled by two American government agencies: the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Meteorological agencies in Japan and Britain also compile reliable temperature data. The analyses made by the agencies are based on thousands of measurements. The measurements come from weather stations, ships, and ocean buoys around the globe. Each group uses different temperature tracking methods but usually reach similar conclusions on the long-term effect of global warming. In 2016 in particular, the records collected by NASA were the most accurate. This is because NASA collected sophisticated data from the arctic. NASA is now able to have more reliable coverage in the polar regions of the world, which are greatly effected by rising temperatures.
“We expect records to continue to be broken as global warming proceeds,”- Michael E. Mann