June 2015 was tied with 1998 for the hottest June on record, and this puts 2015 on course to be "the hottest year on record"—especially because of the predicted upcoming El Niño, according NASA data released this week.

On Thursday, a report compiled and released by the National Oceanic and Atomospheric Association Administration (NOAA) stated that 2014 was indeed the warmest year on record.

The report was compiled by NOAA’s Center for Weather and Climate at the National Centers for Environmental Information and is based on contributions from 413 scientists from 58 countries around the world. Highlights from the report include an increase in greenhouse gasses, "record temperatures observed near the Earth’s surface," and record ocean surface temperatures.

Scientists are increasingly predicting that El Niño is getting stronger:

Here's how the NOAA defines El Niño: 

"El Niño is characterized by unusually warm ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific, as opposed to La Niña, which characterized by unusually cold ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific. El Niño is an oscillation of the ocean-atmosphere system in the tropical Pacific having important consequences for weather around the globe.

"Among these consequences are increased rainfall across the southern tier of the US and in Peru, which has caused destructive flooding, and drought in the West Pacific, sometimes associated with devastating brush fires in Australia. Observations of conditions in the tropical Pacific are considered essential for the prediction of short term (a few months to 1 year) climate variations."

If El Niño conditions continue as predicted, the trend of increasing temperatures is likely to continue, ThinkProgress reports.