(CN) – The good news in the climate change department is that 2016 didn’t extend the streak of broken global heat records. Unfortunately, the planet didn’t cool down any, either.
In a new report for the journal Weather, scientists confirmed that 2016 was another exceptionally warm year across the globe, though not measurably warmer than 2015. However, they note that both years were warmer than any on record.
Climatologists attributed the record warming to greenhouse gases and a temporary boost from a major El Nino event.
Meanwhile, the Arctic experienced exceptional warming in 2016 and scientists said there has also been an unexpected drop in Antarctic sea ice.
In the United States, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the nation is experiencing its second warmest year to date, and last month was the 10th warmest July on record.
“Climatically, 2015 and 2016 saw both long-term human-induced climate change and the naturally occurring El Nino combine to produce the two warmest years on record for global temperature,” said John Kennedy, lead author of the global report with the Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Science and Services. “However, as the other indicators of 2016 prove, there are many more measures of the climate than global temperatures: from local extremes of temperature and rainfall, to an unexpected drop in Antarctic sea ice.”