‘Never Seen Anything Like This Before’ as 2015 Set to Be Hottest Year on Record

Published onThursday, October 22, 2015 by Common Dreams – by Jon Queally, staff writer

With many eyes turning to UN talks in Paris, Earth continues to exhibit symptoms of a planet on fire

How much is  2015 ahead of other recent warm years? It’s not pretty. (Image: Climate Central)

“It’s just incredible to me. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

That’s what Jessica Blunden, a climate scientist with the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), told the New York Times in an interview following the agency’s release on Wednesday of new figures showing that last month was the hottest September since records began and offered further confirmation that 2015 is on track to be the hottest year experienced in modern human history.  

Dr. Blunden pointed the Times to measurements in several of the world’s ocean basins, “where surface temperatures are as much as three degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average,” an increase described as “substantial” given the large size of these areas. “We’re seeing it all across the Indian Ocean, in huge parts of the Atlantic Ocean, in parts of the Arctic oceans,” she said. The bottom line, she added: “the world is warming.”

Read more: http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/10/22/never-seen-anything-2015-set-be-hottest-year-record