July 2015 was the warmest on record and 2015 though July 31 is the warmest year on record, NASA reports, and the heat of the developing intense El Nino has just begun to impact global temperatures.
January through July 2015 is the hottest first 7 months on record by a large margin.
Temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific ocean have risen rapidly over the past month starting a strong El Nino event which models predict will bring a much warmer than normal fall and winter to the northern hemisphere and strong warming as far south as Antarctica in the southern hemisphere. This July, very warm temperatures in the Canadian Arctic and the Arctic ocean north of Canada melted and crushed the thickest sea ice in the Arctic ocean. Thus, not only was it the warmest July on record, but the stage is set for the possible collapse of late summer Arctic sea ice over the next 2 years as the impacts of El Nino heat drive global and Arctic temperatures upward.
NASA July global temperatures were the warmest on record.
Shattered Ice pack on 14August15 north of Canada where some of the thickest ice in the Arctic used to be.
NOAA is now predicting that this El Nino may become the strongest El Nino on record. NOAA's models predict that heat released in the Pacific will cause strong warming in the north Atlantic in winter to spring 2016 as far north as the Barents sea which is the entry to the Arctic ocean.
El Nino is going to have major impacts on global sea surface temperatures according to NOAA's CFSv2 model. The north Atlantic is forecast to warm from the tropics to the Arctic. The possible surge of warm water and warm humid air into the Arctic ocean could bring on the collapse of late summer sea ice in 2016 and 2017.
The surging temperatures of the first seven months of 2015 may be the beginning of a surge in global temperatures and changes in global weather patterns that will be intensified by a warmer, darker and wetter Arctic.
