--- title: April 2016 Was The Hottest April On Record, NASA Says description: It was the hottest April on record this year, and increasing temperature patterns show 2016 may be the hottest year in history. canonical: https://time.com/4336786/april-2016-hottest-record/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-16T12:32:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T09:37:59.348Z article:section: Science og:title: This April Was The Hottest on Record, NASA Says og:description: 2016 is on track to be the hottest year yet og:url: https://time.com/4336786/april-2016-hottest-record/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc5208531fce4315f/6988933c5f570f1184b20ee6/april-hottest-month-nasa.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: A participant is pictured in front of a screen projecting a world map during the World Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21) at Le Bourget og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This April Was The Hottest on Record, NASA Says twitter:description: 2016 is on track to be the hottest year yet twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc5208531fce4315f/6988933c5f570f1184b20ee6/april-hottest-month-nasa.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This April Was The Hottest on Record, NASA Says  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan May 16, 2016 12:32 PM UTC  A participant is pictured in front of a screen projecting a world map during the World Climate Change Conference 2015 at Le Bourget, near Paris, Dec. 8, 2015. A participant is pictured in front of a screen projecting a world map during the World Climate Change Conference 2015 at Le Bourget, near Paris, Dec. 8, 2015.Stephane Mahe—Reuters  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan May 16, 2016 12:32 PM UTC It was the [hottest April on record](http://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/16/world/climate-change-april-hottest-month/index.html) this year, according to NASA, and increasing temperature patterns show 2016 is on the way to becoming the hottest year in recorded history. The space agency has released its latest figures, showing this April was 1.11 degrees Celsius warmer than average April temperatures between 1951 and 1980, CNN reports. That also means April was the seventh month in a row to see global temperatures at least 1 degree Celsius higher than average. The pattern began in February, when NASA said that month broke global temperature records by a “stunning” margin, [_The Guardian_](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/mar/14/february-breaks-global-temperature-records-by-shocking-amount) reports. The temperature record in February 2016 was 1.35 Celsius warmer than usual. \[[_CNN_](http://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/16/world/climate-change-april-hottest-month/index.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4336786/april-2016-hottest-record/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4336786/april-2016-hottest-record/"},"headline":"This April Was The Hottest on Record, NASA Says","datePublished":"2016-05-16T12:32:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T09:37:59.348Z","description":"2016 is on track to be the hottest year yet","url":"https://time.com/4336786/april-2016-hottest-record/","keywords":["weather"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc5208531fce4315f/6988933c5f570f1184b20ee6/april-hottest-month-nasa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc5208531fce4315f/6988933c5f570f1184b20ee6/april-hottest-month-nasa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A participant is pictured in front of a screen projecting a world map during the World Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21) at Le Bourget","caption":"A participant is pictured in front of a screen projecting a world map during the World Climate Change Conference 2015 at Le Bourget, near Paris, Dec. 8, 2015.","creditText":"Stephane Mahe—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/weather/","name":"weather"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4336786/april-2016-hottest-record/","name":"This April Was The Hottest on Record, NASA Says"}}]}] ```