1st LD: 2015 Earth's hottest year on record: U.S. agencies

Last year was the planet's warmest year since modern record keeping began in 1880, two major U.S. government agencies responsible for monitoring global climate trends said Wednesday.

The average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces for 2015 was 0.90 degrees Celsius above the 20th century average, surpassing the previous record set in 2014 by 0.16 degrees Celsius, said a report by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

In a separate, independent analysis, scientists at the U.S. space agency NASA also found 2015 to be the warmest on record. Endit