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2015 almost certain to be Earth’s warmest year on record by an enormous margin

Barring the unforeseeable, the latest monthly climate report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is a clincher. This year's average temperature through October is running 1.55 degrees above the 20th century average, 0.22 degrees above 2014, the previous warmest year. Six of seven of the largest monthly global temperature departures from normal , out of a possible 1630 months, have occurred this calendar year, with October at the top of the list. El Niño events, which not only warm the tropical Pacific but also release vast quantities of heat into the atmosphere, have a long history of pushing the warming climate to new records. The time series chart below, released by NOAA, shows the unmistakable El Niño signal in the course of the global average temperature over the last several decades: In its October State of the Climate report released today, NOAA made the following observations about this chart: First, nearly every month since 1980 has been above the 20th century average, and has generally warmed through the period.