We all feel it, here in Costa Rica the days are hotter, hotter than a year ago and way hotter than five or ten years back. According to the National Meteorological Institute (IMN in Spanish) Costa Rica registered during 2015 between 1.1° and 2.3° C higher than the average registered temperatures; in December of 2015 San Jose registered a temperature of 30.8°C (87.44°F) breaking the record for this province which was 29°C (84.2F) back in 1952. Costa Rica’s highest temperature in history was recorded in February of 1964 when in Puntarenas the temperature reached 42.3°C (109°F). Guanacaste registered temperatures during January 2016 of 34.5° (94.1) one degree over the highest temperature this province had ever registered; this increase in temperature obeys to global warming and the influence of El Niño climate phenomenon.

Climate change is a worldwide reality and it affects animal species and nature.

EFE- The year 2016 is on its way to becoming the hottest since weather records began, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned Friday.

The organization said that 2016 had seen extremely high temperatures.

The unusually high concentration of carbon dioxide, combined with the breaking of temperature records along with a prolonged period of extraordinary heat suggested that this was becoming the new norm, according to Secretary General of the WMO Petteri Taalas.

This, along with the warming up of the oceans, caused an acceleration of coral bleaching, Taalas added.

The exceptionally long season of global warming continued in August, WMO spokesperson Claire Nullis said of data supplied by NASA and the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), pointing out that the month was the hottest since records began, both on land and in the oceans.

According to the latest figures, the Arctic sea ice surface area reached its minimum extent _ 4.14 million square kilometers (1.6 million square miles) _ over summer on Sept. 10, its second most reduced in 37 years, when satellite records began.

The smallest ice surface data ever recorded was on Sept. 17, 2012, when it reduced to 3.39 million kilometers squared (1.31 million square miles).

According to the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its National Centers for Environmental Information, April 2016 saw a combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces of 1.1ºC (1.98ºF) above the 20th century average of 13.7ºC (56.7ºF).