For the past quarter-century, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been gathering data from more than 400 scientists around the world on climate trends.

The report on 2014 from these international researchers? On average, it was the hottest year ever — in the ocean, as well as on land.

Deke Arndt is a climate scientist with the agency and an author of the State of the Climate in 2014 report, released Thursday. It’s the lower atmosphere that’s warming, not the upper atmosphere, he points out — just as the total of greenhouse gases in the lower atmosphere continues to increase. That’s not a coincidence.

Science Confirms 2014 Was Hottest Yet Recorded, On Land And Sea

Photo credit: Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images
Caption: Floodwaters from rising sea levels have submerged and killed trees in Bedono village in Demak, Central Java, Indonesia.