Climate change: Record temperatures show it’s getting worse

Climate experts have analysed data that show March saw the hottest average global temperatures on record this year.

From January to March temperatures averaged out at 1.48 degrees with February seeing 1.55 degrees – well over the Paris climate goal set in December last year.

Global leaders are set to meet in New York to sign the Paris climate agreement that looks to make efforts to keep the global temperature at well below 2 degrees with an aim to limit it to 1.5 degrees, as reported in Scientific American.

Scientists at Climate Central analysed data from the National Oceanic And Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) together with data collected by NASA and found that this temperature rise is the longest run in nearly 140 years when records first begun.

“This was the highest for March in the 1880–2016 record, surpassing the previous record set in 2015 by 0.54°F. March 2016 was also the highest monthly temperature departure among all months on record, at 0.02°F higher than the previous record set just last month. This also marks the 11th consecutive month a monthly global temperature record has been broken, the longest such streak in the 137-year record.”

According to Scientific American, NASAs data, independent from that of NOAAs, shows February’s temperature as being even higher at a staggering 1.63 degrees.

This comes after earlier reports that the ice sheets in Greenland and the Antarctic are significantly melting and climate experts predicting a much faster melt rate than previously predicted resulting in the treat of severe sea level rises.

The war on climate change is a big issue with global leaders who see that the world needs to dramatically accelerate emission reductions if they want to meet their goal of a 1.5 degree limit.