2016 will go down as the warmest year ever recorded on planet earth.

That might seem hard to grasp, considering we are currently experiencing one of the coldest stretches of winter. David Phillips with Environment Canada says it's not like this record had stood the test of time. In fact, it was only one-year old. And, the record set in 2015 beat the previous high, set only one year earlier.

Nonetheless, Phillips says 2016 was the warmest year since records were first kept in 1880. And in fact, from May 2015 to August 2016, every one of those months broke the previous record for that particular month. Phillips says it was also the warmest year for ocean waters.

The picture is not much different in Canada. Canadian records do not go back as far, but for Western Canada, 2016 was the second warmest, dating back to the late 1940's. The previous warmest year on the Prairies was in 1987, though Phillips says it was warmer by the smallest of margins.

In southern Manitoba, 2016 was the third warmest on record. The average temperature last year was 5.1C, compared to 3C for an average year. In 1931, the average temperature was 5.3C and in 1987 it was 5.5C . In fact, Phillips says July was the only month in 2016 with an average temperature below normal.

Phillips says part of this warm trend can be attributed to the super El Nino we experienced. Even when that system died in March of 2016, there was still some residual heat to keep things warm. And because we are no longer under the influence of an El Nino, Phillips says it is unlikely that planet Earth will complete the four-peat for consecutive years with an all-time high average temperature.

Meanwhile, back in December, Phillips says their models were showing that the coldest stretch of winter would be the last part, beginning near the end of January. But Phillips now says that by the time southern Manitoba reaches mid-January, we may have experienced the harshest part of winter, from a temperature standpoint. In fact, he says, by mid-January, southern Manitoba will begin to experience above normal temperatures and for that trend to continue the rest of the winter.

Phillips notes southern Manitoba reaches a milestone next week. Jan. 12-14 is considered the dead of winter. That is statistically when temperatures bottom out. That means historically, they reach their lowest average temperature of winter during that period, which also means that from that point on there is more winter behind than ahead. Phillips points out we are already gaining about ninety seconds more of sunlight from one day to the next.