National governments are compiling their final temperature data for the last year, and the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) has weighed in with its conclusion that 2014 “was the hottest year in more than 120 years of record-keeping—by far,” Climate Progress reports.
JMA is a World Meteorological Organization Climate Centre of Excellence, and its findings show that “there has been no ‘hiatus’ or ‘pause’ in warming. In fact, there has not even been a slowdown,” Romm writes. “What makes setting the record for hottest year in 2014 doubly impressive is that it occurred despite the fact we’re still waiting for the start of El Niño,” when it took an “unusual super-El Niño” to push 1998 above the trendline.
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“If you were wondering how 2014 could be the hottest year on record when it wasn’t particularly hot in the United States,” Romm tells his predominantly U.S. audience, “it turns out there’s a whole planet out there that has been getting very toasty.” NASA and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are expected to confirm JMA’s conclusion.
