According to a report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the extreme heat that gripped that nation and the world throughout the 2014 summer was unprecedented.

The findings state that over 26 countries on every continent recorded a record high temperature, and the majority of the globe experienced a warmer than average land and ocean temperatures by approximately 1.35 degrees Fahrenheit above the normal temperature. The results surpass the previous record set in 1998.

The record heat was driven mainly by warm oceans, which clocked temperatures that broke the previously recorded highs of 2009 by approximately a tenth of a degree. The ocean temperatures were also the “highest departure from average for any month in the 135-year record,” according to the report.

The results are troubling on many levels, mainly due to the fact that warm ocean waters can adversely affect the weather, environment, and other intricacies of the global ecosystem. NOAA reports that there is a 60-65 percent chance that El Nino type conditions will develop later on this year, which would drastically impact the weather and foment bizarre fluctuations from the normal climate patterns experienced in the Northern Hemisphere during the fall and winter.

On a broader level, the first eight months of 2014 was the third warmest period on record, and high latitudes were especially prone to record breaking temperatures. However, the study noted that large swaths of the US, western Europe, east Asia, and central Australia all experienced colder temperatures than the average, with many monitoring stations actually documenting record lows throughout the summer.

A climate researcher at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, Jake Crouch, said, “Just looking at ocean temperatures, August has been the warmest month of any month on record ever. I mean they were extremely warm”.

Crouch continued to say that if September-December keep pace with the first three quarters of 2014, then 2014 will be the warmest year in the history of the Earth.