2015 was a record-shattering year in many ways, one of which is the year's jarring temperature as the hottest 365 days in historical record. It broke the record previously held by the year before, setting off concerns of the rising temperatures, the causes and the alarming effects, according to the official report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The NOAA report said that last year was the Earth's warmest period by a big margin since data started being recorded in 1880. The global land and ocean average surface temperature for 2015 was the highest of any year, reaching its peak in December when the month also hit the highest global average surface temperature of any month in record.

The record warmth was reportedly widespread throughout the entire planet from Central America to northern South America, parts of Europe extending to Asia, a majority of the Indian Ocean and much more areas all around the world.

A report from New York Times revealed that hitting the highest all-time temperature has been expected by scientists in 2015, largely because of the onslaught of one of the biggest El Niño droughts in a hundred years.

However, the drought was only part of the reason for the rising temperatures, as explained by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) director Gavin Schmidt in an official press release from NASA.

"2015 was remarkable even in the context of the ongoing El Niño," Schmidt pointed out. "Last year's temperatures had an assist from El Niño, but it is the cumulative effect of the long-term trend that has resulted in the record warming that we are seeing."

This long-term trend has been steadily in progress for quite some time now. As the NASA report revealed, the average surface temperature across the world has increased by a steep 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit or 1.0 degree Celsius in the past century. Recent years have seen a consistent planetary warming as scientists have recorded 15 out of the 16 warmest years in history to have taken place in the last 15 years.

Even with last year's El Niño push, it's clear to both NASA and NOAA that the 2015 record was already on pace to continue the upward trajectory of long-term warming. This consistent phenomenon has largely been attributed to the rising levels of carbon dioxide and other man-made emissions continuously released into the atmosphere.

According to a forecast report from Met Office, 2016 is expected to be just as warm, or even warmer.

"The whole system is warming up, relentlessly," Gerald A. Meehl, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, summed it up in New York Times.