2015 Is Officially The Hottest Year In Earth's Recorded History

This past year was named the hottest year in recorded history, and it's probably only going to get worse.

According to The New York Times, scientists from NASA, as well as NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, revealed statistics on Wednesday based on thousands of measurements conducted by ships, weather stations and ocean buoys all over the globe.

Going all the way back to records first taken in 1880, the two US agencies found 2015 was the hottest year on record, breaking the previous record held by 2014.

Japanese and British agencies found 2015 to be the hottest year as well, with the latter nation's agencies basing their conclusions off records dating back to 1850.

The Pacific Ocean has been releasing excessive amounts of heat into the atmosphere for months, but the scientific community believes mankind's emissions of greenhouse gases is the central cause for 2015's record-breaking heat.

Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael E. Mann determined if longterm global warming did not exist, the chances of having back-to-back record-breaking years would be one in every 1,500 pairs of years.

The US also named this past December as the hottest and wettest in recorded history, partially thanks to an unexpected string of floods currently occurring down the Mississippi River.

Rainfall reportedly increased at an abnormal rate all across the US, with the biggest jumps in intensity occurring in the eastern US.

South Africa, on the other hand, is currently experiencing a drought that could leave millions without food.

But, perhaps the most destructive effect of 2015's warmth was the heat wave in India, which killed approximately 2,500 people.

In the past two decades, heat waves alone killed nearly 140,000 people, and eight of the 10 deadliest heat waves in history occurred over the last 29 years.

Because of the El Niño causing the release of excessive heat from the Pacific Ocean, 2016 could turn out to be the next hottest year on record.

Citations: 2015 Was Hottest Year in Historical Record, Scientists Say (The New York Times)