Hottest Year (Yet Again)

In news that surprises no one who is paying attention, NASA announced that 2016 is the warmest year in the temperature record at 0.99 degrees Celsius above the 1951-1980 average. NOAA reports 0.94 degrees Celsius above the 20th century average, which was 0.04 degrees higher than 2015.

Joe Romm is obviously concerned.

Yet while human-caused warming is now as undeniable as the health dangers from smoking, and although the entire world desperately banded together in one last ditch effort to avoid catastrophe in 2015, we are hours away from the inauguration of the most science-denying administration in U.S. history, one dedicated to stopping U.S. and global action.

Update (June 17):  Ah ha! May was only the second warmest on record. I knew it was all a hoax.

Update (June 29):  The official high temperature in Ahvez, Iran today was 53.7 degrees Celsius (128.7 Fahrenheit). Just short of the (most reliably measured) all time record of 54 degrees from 2013 and tied in 2016.

Update (July 4):  The Middle East and North Africa is especially vulnerable to facing uninhabitable weather conditions.

Update (July 6):  It's worth noting that Syria has been severely impacted by drought attributed to climate change.

Syria’s worst drought in 900-years lasted 5 years just prior to the onset of armed conflict, driving 1.5 million farmers and herders off their parched land into the cities, migrating/searching for sustenance. Ever since war started, they’ve been re-migrating out of the cities to Turkey, Mediterranean states, and all across Europe, except for Poland, Hungary, and Czech Republic, which refuse. Global warming/armed conflicts cause people to do crazy things.

Update (October 8):  I may have missed some climate stories this year, but September seems to be a record-setter. It's the warmest non-El Nino month and had the greatest hurricane activity.

Update (October 28):  Some heat records in Southern California are being broken by double-digit margins.