IT MAY NOT have felt like it for much of the month in Ireland, but last month was the warmest April the planet has seen in modern times.
The figures from NASA show that April was the seventh month in a row to have broken climate records.
The global temperature in April was 1.11 degrees Celsius above the average from 1951-1980. That is higher than the April record from 2010 by a quarter of a degree.
The figures continue a trend of 369 consecutive months where figures were at or above average.
The last time temperatures were below average was July 1985.
The figures released over the weekend make it all but certain that 2016 will be hottest year ever and probably by the largest margin ever.
The figures come days after Climate Change Minister Denis Naughten met with the European Commissioner for Climate Action, Miguel Arias Canete.
Naughten said that Ireland is “fully committed to the climate agenda”, despite fears that the country will miss its climate goals in the next decade and a half.
UN climate negotiators meet today in the German city of Bonn for the first time since the Paris deal in December.
Senior representatives face the task of turning the broad lines of the historic deal into operational reality.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say