Last month was the hottest April on record for the planet, according to the latest data set from NASA.  It marks three months in a row that the record has been broken by the largest margin ever, and seven months in a row that are at least 1 degree Celsius above the 1951-80 mean temperature.

April 2016 was 1.11 degrees Celsius above that average, crushing the previous April record set in 2010 by 0.24 degrees Celsius.  It's being spurred on by the massive release of warm air across the Pacific Ocean known as El Nino.  But this is far from the biggest El Nino year on record, and the sudden swelling of global temperatures is occurring simultaneously with rapid man-made global warming, pushing temperatures to all-time highs.

Parts of Australia joined a large portion of Asia, eastern Europe, northern Africa, Brazil, the northwestern United States, and western Canada to experience a rise in average temperatures of 2 degrees.  Parts of Alaska, Russia, western Greenland and northern Africa had a temperature departure of at least 4 degrees Celsius above the April average.  Only a few spots on earth - including the southern tip of South America and Antarctica - were cooler than usual.

The Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) has confirmed the NASA data, checking its extensive records going all the way back to 1891.  By the JMA's analysis, this is the twelfth consecutive months that a global temperature record has been set.  The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will release its findings on April 2016 on Wednesday.