It was a comparatively mild year weatherwise for Amarillo and the Texas Panhandle, reports Amarillo.com. Globally, 2015 was by far the hottest year in 136 years of recordkeeping. The worldwide temperature exceeded the 20th century average by 1.62 degrees. However, in Amarillo the temperature never rose above 100 degrees. That hasn’t happened since 2002.
Meteorologist Lance Goehring explained: “El Nino for … Amarillo normally means our high temperatures are a little cooler and our low temperatures are a little warmer.” But globally, the news isn’t good. “Breaking the record is the norm,” Texas Tech climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe said.
NASA director Gaving Schmidt agreed: “This trend will continue because we understand why it’s happening. It’s happening because the dominant force is carbon dioxide from burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.”