Washington, January 19 (RHC)-- The year 2016 has officially been named as the hottest year on record, making it the third year in a row to rank hotter than all previous years.  The announcement was made by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA on Wednesday.
 
In 2016, the average surface temperatures was recorded at 1.1 C° higher than the levels recorded before the industrial revolution, when the large-scale burning of fossil fuel commenced.

Scientists started to keep temperature records back in the 1880s, but research shows the world was last this warm some 115,000 years ago.  "The effect of human activity on our climate is no longer subtle. It's plain as day, as are the impacts -- in the form of record floods, droughts, super-storms and wildfires -- that it is having on us and our planet," said director of the Earth Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, Michael Mann.

Extreme weather conditions resulting from global warming have had a severe effect on the planet's climate.  "El Niño (warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean surface) was a factor this year, but both 2015 and 2016 would have been records even without it," said director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Gavin Schmidt.  He went on to add that around 90 percent of the warming in 2016 was due to the increase of greenhouse gas emissions.