UN weather agency: 2010 ties for warmest year
Katie Pekkuala and Jake Hebert, both of Maynard, Mass., lie on the edge of Walden Pond, in Concord, Mass., on May 26 last year. Temperatures soared into the 90s in southern New England to break records for that day of the year. (May 26, 2010) Credit: AP
GENEVA - The warmest year on record is a three-way tie: 2010, 2005 and 1998.
So said the United Nations weather agency Thursday, providing further evidence that the planet is slowly but surely heating up.
Average temperatures globally last year were 0.95 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the 1961-90 mean used for comparison purposes, the World Meteorological Organization said.
That's a bit lower than what the U.S. National Climatic Data Center announced earlier this month, but the WMO also uses data collected by Britain's Meteorological Office and by NASA.
"The 2010 data confirm the Earth's significant long-term warming trend," said top WMO official Michel Jarraud. The 10 warmest years after records began in 1854 have all occurred since 1998, he said.
The average worldwide temperature for the 20th century was 57.0 degrees Fahrenheit.
Rising temperatures over the past century are causing climate experts to worry. Most attribute the change to carbon dioxide and gases released into the air by gasoline-burning engines and other industrial processes. The gases tend to trap heat in the atmosphere like a greenhouse.
The Geneva-based WMO said last year's extreme weather - notably the heat wave in Russia and monsoon flooding in Pakistan - has continued into the new year. Heavy floods in Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Brazil and Australia were also cited.
The year 2010 also was the wettest on record, according to the Global Historical Climatology Network. But since rain and snowfall patterns varied greatly around the world, scientists say more research is needed to establish a link between the warmer temperatures with the unusual moisture.
Land stations, ships, buoys at sea and satellites are all used to collect temperature readings. A “La Nina” condition took effect in the tropical Pacific Ocean in the last half of 2010, marked by below-normal temperatures.
The WMO climate report also found that Arctic sea ice cover in December was the smallest since records began in 1979. - AP
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
