WASHINGTON (AP) - Last year wasn't just the Earth's hottest year on record - it left a century of high temperature marks in the dust.
The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and NASA say 2015 was by far the hottest year in 136 years of record keeping.
NOAA says 2015's temperature was 58.62 degrees Fahrenheit (14.79 degrees Celsius), passing 2014 by a record margin of 0.29 degrees. That's 1.62 degrees above the 20th-century average. NASA, which measures differently, says 2015 was 0.23 degrees warmer than the record set in 2014.
Although 2015 is now the hottest on record, it was the fourth time in 11 years that Earth broke annual marks for high temperature.
Scientists blame a combination of El Nino and increasing man-made global warming.