(Bloomberg) – The Earth is warming so fast that it'ssurprising even the climate scientists who predicted this wascoming.

Last month was the hottest March in 137 years of record keeping,according to data released Tuesday by the National Oceanic andAtmospheric Administration. It's the 11th consecutivemonth to set a new record, and it puts 2016 on course toset a third straight annual record. Now, it might seempremature to talk about setting a new yearly record after justthree months of data, but these months have been such an extremedeparture from the norm that Gavin Schmidt, who directsNASA's GoddardInstitute for Space Studies, has already made thecall.

Related: Contiguous U.S. had warmest winter on record, NOAAreports

“I estimate [a greater than] 99% chance of an annual record in2016,” Schmidt wrote on Twitter last week,after NASA released its own record climate readings. A monthago—following the release of February's data—Schmidt wrote, simply,“Wow.”

Since 1980, the world has set a new annual temperaturerecord approximately every three years, and 15 of the hottest16 years ever measured are in the 21stcentury. The chart below shows earth's warming climate,measured from land and sea, dating back to 1880.

The March data follows the hottest winter on recordworldwide. Results from the world's top monitoringagencies vary slightly, but NASA, NOAA, andthe Japan Meteorological Agency all agree that 2016 hasno precedent in the modern climate record.

The most extreme heat swept the Arctic, wherewinter ice levels were at the lowest onrecord for this time of year. In Greenland, ice melted so fastscientists initially thought their calculations might be wrong.

Related: Global wearming curshes records.Again.

To be sure, some of this is the result of a monster El Niñoweather pattern lingering in the Pacific Ocean. But thebroader trend is clear: We live on a planet that is warmingrapidly, with no end in sight. Since 1980, the worldhas set a new annual temperature record roughlyevery three years, and 15 of the hottest 16 years evermeasured are in the 21st century. Now the hottest winteron record is turning into the hottest spring—the beginning ofsomething grimly new.

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