"This Year will likely be the hottest year on record. Climate change is partly to blame, but so is El Nino. That's the weather pattern from the Pacific that affects weather in the America's as well."

"Just this last winter, Boston broke its all-time record for snowfall - piles and piles of snow. This last week, people in Boston were playing tennis outdoors. Meteorologists say this year will very likely be the planet's warmest year since modern record-keeping began about a century ago."

Christopher Joyce reports for NPR's Morning Edition December 28, 2015. [2]