An El Nino in the Pacific Ocean and rising temperatures caused by climate change have put the world on an almost irreversible path to its warmest year on records dating back to 1880.
Global temperatures from January to August were 0.8 degrees Celsius(1.5 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 20th-century average and the warmest first 8 months of any year in the books, the National Centers for Environmental Information said in a monthly climate report.
"Are the record temperatures due to climate change or due to El Nino? The answer is yes," said Deke Arndt, chief of the center's monitoring branch in Asheville, North Carolina. "Long-term climate change is like climbing a flight of stairs. El Nino is like standing on tippy-toes while you are on one of those stairs."