Summer is almost over but experts say we should brace ourselves for more heat. A study, published yesterday on Climate.gov, shows that 2015 is on track to be the hottest year in history, supplanting 2014.
Data gathered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows that June 2015 was the warmest June since record keeping began in 1880. The average temperature for the month was nearly 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average. Other agencies such as NASA also pegged June as the hottest month on record.
Experts attribute the scorching month to the current El Nino sweeping the globe right now. "We can certainly attribute some the record warmth to El Niño, but not all of it, and that amount is not really possible to quantify," Jessica Blunden, a climate scientist with ERT, Inc., at NOAA, said.
Blunden also says that all patterns point to this El Nino lasting well into the spring time and it may even intensify in the coming months.
"We do know that as El Niños strengthen, they do tend to cause global temperatures to rise," Blunden said. "The first half of 2015 is already 0.16°F warmer than the previous record for the first half of 2010, which happens to be when we had the last El Niño. If this current El Niño does continue to strengthen, it seems almost certain that 2015 will beat out 2014 as the warmest year on record."
The Guardian also points out that June 2015 saw fatal heat waves sweep through parts of southern Asia. Regions of southern Pakistan were devastated by rising temperatures, resulting in the deaths of 1,200 people. The tragedy is the 8th deadliest in the world since 1900.
A month earlier, their neighbours in India also suffered through their own heat wave which claimed 2,000 lives. The staggering death toll ranks as the 5th most since 1900.