We all know that 2015 was the hottest year on record. But what did that look like exactly? Thanks to all the handy satellites stationed around Earth we now have the ability to watch our weather 24/7 from space. And that also gives us the chance to take a broader perspective and look back on the year that was, thanks to this beautiful time-lapse from weather monitoring organisation EUMETSAT.

The whole video goes for more than 8 minutes, which sounds a long time. But when you consider that it crams in everything that happened in 2015 - like El Niño and these three crazy category 4 hurricanes that formed at the same time - it's actually pretty efficient.

We start with a snowy Northern Hemisphere and scorching hot Southern Hemisphere, divided by a whole lot of pretty swirly clouds forming towards the equator.

In March, the Sun starts to move very slowly towards the north, defrosting things along the way. Around the 1:50 mark, you can see a whole bunch of tropical cyclones form above Australia - including the category 5 Cyclone Pam, which wreaked havoc on Vanuatu.

By the time May rolls around, things are getting a lot cloudier all over the planet, due to the warming land mass up north. This is what causes those big late spring/early summer storms. And while they look really pretty from space, we can imagine on the ground they wouldn't be quite so much fun.

Don't miss the 5:30 mark when you can see those aforementioned three tropical storms form at one time and line up in the Pacific, which is an incredibly rare event. Eventually the action dies down a little bit as winter descends upon the Northern Hemisphere once more.

The narration over the top of the video gives you an awesome idea of everything you're looking at and how it impacted the planet below it, but after the first watch, we thoroughly recommend you mute the sound and put on your favourite classical track while you watch those clouds roll carelessly across the planet.

As much as we might all complain about the weather from time to time, when you stop to take it all in, there's no denying that it's a beautiful, beautiful world. Sometimes all it takes is a little perspective.