This year is off to a record-breaking start for global temperatures.
It has been the hottest year to date, with January, February and March each passing the mark set in 2015, according to new data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
March was also the 11th consecutive month to see a record for temperatures since agencies started tracking them in the 1800s.
The release Tuesday of NOAA’s global climate report makes it the third independent agency — along with NASA and the Japan Meteorological Association — to reach similar findings, each using slightly different methods.
The reports add a sense of urgency at the United Nations this week where world diplomats are gathered to sign the climate accord reached late last year in Paris, when 195 nations committed to lower greenhouse gas emissions and to stave off the worst effects of climate change.
Since the initial agreement was reached, other global anomalies have been announced that punctuate the threat of climate change, including troubling trend lines on Arctic sea ice, floods, drought and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.
Some of these — warm temperatures and heavy rains in particular — can be explained in part by this year’s El Niño phenomenon, which scientists predicted would release large amounts of heat from the Pacific Ocean into the atmosphere, causing irregular weather patterns across the globe.
But the effects of the current El Niño have been exacerbated by global warming, a result of emissions of greenhouse gases by humans, said Jessica Blunden, a climate scientist with NOAA and lead author of the report.
El Niño is currently on its way out, and ocean temperatures in the tropical Pacific peaked in November, said Kevin Trenberth, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
But the heat the ocean had been storing had to go somewhere: “It’s come out and been distributed around the world,” which helps explain record warm temperatures and wildfires in the Southern Hemisphere, Trenberth said.
Blunden said that the Arctic is seeing some of the most abnormal weather on earth, with temperatures about 6 degrees warmer than average overall. These highs could lead to record melting of Arctic sea ice this summer.