The first global summary of 2014 annual temperature is out, and it shows that 2014 was the warmest year on record for the globe.  The Japan Meteorological Agency is one of four major independent groups studying the trends in global climate, and released their estimate of the 2014 global temperature last week.  Their graph of temperature is shown below.  You can read a article about this summary here.

japan met agency ann temp graph 2014

Interestingly, the Japan Meteorological Agency is the only group that has officially declared the start to El Nino (link to Reuters article here).  Climate scientists across the globe generally think that El Nino-like conditions have been occurring in the Pacific Ocean for the past several months based on observed weather patterns, but the conditions have not coalesced into a full-blown El Nino so far.