April sets new heat record

Last month was the hottest April on record worldwide, making it a near certainty that 2016 will break records as the hottest year.

While new monthly heat records have become commonplace, April also set a record for having the largest margin in history above the previous record, NASA said Sunday.

{mosads}NASA’s data show that April’s surface temperature globally was 1.11 degrees Celsius above the average for that month from 1951 to 1980, the benchmark federal researchers use for their data.

It was the hottest month since federal records began in 1980 and 0.24 degrees Celsius above the previous record, set in 2010.

April is now the seventh consecutive month with a new record under the NASA data and the third straight month in which the margin for the new record had the highest margin above the previous one.

Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, tweeted that with the April record, there is now a more than 99 percent chance that 2016 will be the hottest year on record. The last record was set in 2015, which itself exceeded 2014’s record.

The frequent new temperature records have been alarming scientists and policymakers alike, who see human-induced climate change as the primary driver for the extreme heat. This year’s El Niño is likely another significant factor in the warm temperatures.

Experts have generally agreed that the world should work to avoid warming more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels to stop the worst effects of climate change, like catastrophic sea level rise or agricultural effects.

Depending on the definition, 2015’s temperature averages likely exceeded 1 degree above pre-industrial temperatures.

Last year’s Paris climate agreement, in which nearly 200 nations pledged to limit greenhouse gas emissions, was signed with the 2 degree goal in mind, although the actual emissions limits in the pact aren’t enough to get to that point.

Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which organized last year’s agreement, said the latest NASA report is troubling.

“The very unfortunate circumstance we have now is the overlap of a very intense El Niño that has been magnified by climate change,” she said.

“All of these record breaking temperatures and attendant implications that we have had, such as record breaking fires, for example, and droughts in India, are all reminders that we cannot afford to do anything except to accelerate the solution agenda. We absolutely have no other option but to accelerate.”