Oh No! 2015 Hottest Year on Record; July Hottest Month

If you're reading this, then you've survived the highest average temperatures (recorded) known to man.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) released reports last Thursday reaffirming what most of us probably already know — the world is warming.

NOAA notes that no other month was as hot as this past July in records that dates back a hundred years ago. Based on their calculations, July's average global temperature of 61.86 degrees was 0.14 degrees warmer than the previous warmest month on record which is July 1988. According to NOAA as reported by The Scientific American, thus far, 2015 is 1.53°F above the 20th century average, and 0.16°F ahead of 2010, which had the previous warmest January through July.

And with the upcoming El Nino, one that NOAA predicts could surpass the 1997 record which brought about weather-related disasters such as mudslides in California and fires in Australia, the prediction for 2015 being the hottest year on record is on its way to becoming a fact.

"There is a greater than 90% chance that El Niño will continue through Northern Hemisphere winter 2015-16, and around an 85% chance it will last into early spring 2016," NOAA furthered in a statement, as quoted by CNN.

Washington Post reported that not only did the El Nino manifested itself over the oceans through the increase of surface water sea temperatures, but also in the elevated temperatures in other areas due to its "ripple effects on global weather patterns."

In indirect support of NOAA's analysis, JMA also reported that the last three months (May, June and July) have been the warmest of the year. Looking at the facts laid before us, every month this year has been ranked as one of the warmest if not the warmest temperature this year, and the probability of this year being the hottest year on record is close to being confirmed.

"I would say [we're] 99 percent certain that it's going to be the warmest year on record," Jessica Blunden, a climate scientist with ERT, Inc. at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said during a press teleconference on Thursday, as per The Scientific American.

"It's reaffirming what we already know: the world is warming," said Dr. Jake Crouch, a physical scientist at the centre, in a conference call with reporters as told by The Straits Times. "It's time for us to start looking at what are the impacts of that," he added.