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2015 was a scorcher of a year in the instrumental record.

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It was very, very clearly the warmest year by a long chalk.

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2014 was also a record year. but only by a little bit.

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But 2015 has totally knocked that into the grass.

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The temperatures are about 1.8 Fahrenheit above what it was in the 19th century, and

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that's about halfway to the target that the UN Climate Talks have identified as the

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target we should be avoiding if we want to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

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This record year really is just emphasizing the fact that there is a very, very strong

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long-term trend in temperature that we have associated very strongly with the

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human emissions of greenhouse gases.

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While one degree might not mean very much to you basically on a daily cycle,

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it really gets noticed by the planet and the systems on the planet.

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Glaciers notice that the planet is more than a degree warmer than it is.

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We've seen glaciers retreat almost everywhere where there are glaciers on the planet.

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We've seen shifts in eco-zones, so where ecosystems are happiest

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these have been moving poleward and upward over the decades,

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and that's going to continue.

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We're currently in a big El Nino event, and that's going to persist through the spring

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and perhaps into the summer.

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2016 is going to start off very. very warm as well. and in fact.

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it might be as warm as 2015 going through the rest of the year.

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We actually anticipate that 2016 might also be a record warm year, and that will be the

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first time that we've had three record warm years in a row in the whole record.

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When NASA first started talking about global warming, it was in 1988.

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1988 was also a record year.

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But with the record in now for 2015, 1988 is not even in the top 20 of warmest years.

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