While the U.S. Midwest had a cool 2014, mainly due to a frigid winter, the planet as a whole was the hottest since reliable records have been kept. NASA and NOAA will make the official announcement tomorrow.

Some interesting tidbits:

• The Japan Meteorological Agency declared 2014 as the hottest year on record globally.

 

• NASA and NOAA will release their official global numbers on Friday and all signs are pointing to 2014 as the hottest year on record.

 

• This means that 13 of the hottest years on record globally (since 1880) have all happened in the past 15 years.

 

• The odds of that happening by chance are less than 1-in-27 million.

 

• It’s early in the year, but the first CO2 daily average of 400 ppm has already been recorded.