November the hottest ever recorded

Last month was the warmest November in recorded history, according to new data released by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

2015 is likely to the warmest year ever recorded with November’s high temperatures continuing a trend.

According to NASA’s Land-Ocean Temperature Index, the global average temperature last month was 1.05 degrees Celsius warmer than the overall average global temperature for the years 1880-2015.

It is only the second time the monthly index has climbed more than 1 degree Celsius above the average since records began in 1880 with the first time occurring the previous month prior, in October this year, when the global average temperature was 1.06 C above the average.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) forecast in late November that the global average surface temperature will be the highest in recorded history and attributed the phenomenon to anthropogenic global warming and the ongoing El Nino climate pattern.

NASA also conducted a five-year analysis in November and found the period from 2011 to 2015 to be the hottest five-year period ever recorded.

The report said: "The record high temperatures in the five-year period 2011-15, along with the annual record set in 2014 and likely to be broken in 2015, are consistent with established long-term warming trends, the dominant cause of which is the emission of anthropogenic greenhouse gases." 

The study also said: "Year-to-year temperature changes occur in conjunction with the long-term warming trend, in particular as a result of El Nino and La Nina events."