NOAA’s latest monthly report on global temperatures confirms that we are headed toward a record-smashing year.

Here are some of the new records for “combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces” that NOAA reports were just broken:

• Hottest “May in the 136-year period of record, at 0.87°C (1.57°F) above the 20th century average of 14.8°C (58.6°F), surpassing the previous record set just one year ago by 0.08°C (0.14°F).”
• Hottest March–May (boreal spring) on record, “at 0.85°C (1.53°F) above the 20th century average of 13.7°C (56.7°F), surpassing the previous record warmth of March–May 2010 by 0.04°C (0.07°F). “
• Hottest January-May on record by far “at 0.85°C (1.53°F) above the 20th century average, surpassing the previous record set in 2010 by 0.09°C (0.16°F).”

So far, this year is blowing past every other year in terms of global temperatures. And as NOAA notes, “2010 was the last year with El Niño conditions; however El Niño was ending at this point in 2010, while it appears to be maturing at the same point in 2015.”

El Niños tend to set the record for the hottest years, since the regional warming adds to the underlying global warming trend. We could well see the global temperature record set by 0.2°F.

We now appear to be in the early stages of the long-awaited jump in global warming.