With this year's unusually extreme El Niño finally coming to an end, scientists are claiming that the reason behind it's freakish length and intensity is down to global warming.

It is being claimed that the extremity of this year's El Niño will most likely result in 2016 being the warmest year on record, after it was discovered that February was the hottest month in recorded history.

Last year's global warming summit in Paris ended with the agreement that a 1.5 degree increase in worldwide temperature when compared to pre-industrial levels would result in catastrophic effects, including the melting of glacial sheets in Greenland and the North and South Poles, which scientists then state would result in many low-lying islands around the world to be entirely submerged.

The rise in temperature in February was noted at a 1.35 degree increase, and talking to The Guardian on the subject, head of climate impact research at Exeter University Professor Richard Betts stated: “Last month’s figure is a one-off and it remains to be seen if temperatures are going to continue to rise this steeply. We are still not at an established 1.5 degree rise, but there is no doubt this is a worrying sign.”