2014 was the warmest year across global land and ocean surfaces since records began by NASA,National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration 3:20am 17th Jan, 2015   February 2015    The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has ranked 2014 as the hottest year on record, as part of a continuing trend. After consolidating leading international datasets, WMO noted that the difference in temperature between the warmest years is only a few hundredths of a degree – less than the margin of uncertainty.    Average global air temperatures over land and sea surface in 2014 were 0.57 °C (1.03°F) above the long-term average of 14.00°C (57.2 °F) for the 1961-1990 reference period. By comparison, temperatures were 0.55 °C (1.00°F) above average in 2010 and 0.54°C (0.98°F) above average in 2005, according to WMO calculations. The estimated margin of uncertainty was 0.10°C (0.18°F).    “The overall warming trend is more important than the ranking of an individual year,” said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud. “Analysis of the datasets indicates that 2014 was nominally the warmest on record, although there is very little difference between the three hottest years,” said Mr Jarraud.    “Fourteen of the fifteen hottest years have all been this century. We expect global warming to continue, given that rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the increasing heat content of the oceans are committing us to a warmer future,” he said.    Around 93% of the excess energy trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse gases from fossil fuels and other human activities ends up in the oceans. Therefore, the heat content of the oceans is key to understanding the climate system. Global sea-surface temperatures reached record levels in 2014.    It is notable that the high 2014 temperatures occurred in the absence of a fully developed El Niño. El Niño occurs when warmer than average sea-surface temperatures in the eastern tropical Pacific combine, in a self-reinforcing loop, with atmospheric pressure systems. This has an overall warming impact on the climate. High temperatures in 1998 – the hottest year before the 21st century – occurred during a strong El-Niño year.    “In 2014, record-breaking heat combined with torrential rainfall and floods in many countries and drought in some others – consistent with the expectation of a changing climate,” said Mr Jarraud.    Strong weather and climate services are now more necessary than ever before to increase resilience to disasters and help countries and communities adapt to a fast changing and, in many places, less hospitable climate, said Mr Jarraud.    WMO released the global temperature analysis in advance of climate change negotiations to be held in Geneva from 8 to 13 February. These talks will help to pave the way for an agreement on action to be adopted by the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change next December in Paris.    The WMO analysis is based, amongst others, on three complementary datasets maintained by the Hadley Centre of the UK’s Met Office and the Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom (combined); the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Climatic Data Centre; and the Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) operated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).    http://www.wmo.int/media/?q=content/warming-trend-continues-2014    Jan 2015    Last year was the Earth''s hottest on record, which America''s space agency NASA says continues a long-term trend towards a warming planet.    NASA''s data shows that not only was 2014 the warmest year recorded since 1880, 10 of the hottest years on record have happened since 1998.    The analysis is backed up by a separate, independent report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - as well as the British and Japanese weather offices.    NASA said 2014 was the latest in a series of warm years, in a series of warm decades – and it attributed the long-term trends to drivers of climate change it said were dominated by human emissions of greenhouse gases.    The parts of the world that saw record heat included Russia, western Alaska, the western US, parts of interior South America, parts of eastern and western coastal Australia, north Africa and most of Europe.    "While the ranking of individual years can be affected by chaotic weather patterns, the long-term trends are attributable to drivers of climate change that right now are dominated by human emissions of greenhouse gases," said Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA''s Goddard Institute of Space Studies in New York.    "The data shows quite clearly that it''s the greenhouse gas trends that are responsible for the majority of the trends."    Mr Schmidt said the trends in greenhouse gas emissions were continuing so further record highs could be expected in the years to come.    Marshall Shepherd, a University of Georgia meteorologist, said: "If you are younger than 29 years old, you haven''t lived in a month that was cooler than the 20th century average."    Scientists have warned of grave consequences this century if global temperatures keep rising as anticipated, including heavily populated coastal regions being swamped by rising ocean levels, more deadly extreme weather events and droughts that will harm food production.    This year representatives of about 200 governments will meet in Paris to try to forge a deal to limit global warming to avoid floods, droughts, heatwaves and rising sea levels blamed on increasing emissions of greenhouse gases, which result from burning fossil fuels such as coal and oil.    The scientists said computer models showed that the change in global temperatures was five times higher than it would be if natural phenomena such as volcanic eruptions and solar heating were acting alone.    Including contributions from human activity, such as greenhouse gas emissions, "we get a good match to those long-term trends," Mr Schmidt said.    "Taken together, the warm temperatures of the recent decades demonstrate the impact of greenhouse gases on our climate, and invalidate the sound bite that global warming has somehow ''stopped''," said Joe Casola, staff scientist at the Centre for Climate and Energy Solutions.    Since 1880, Earth''s average surface temperature has warmed by about 0.8 degrees Celsius, a trend that is largely driven by the increase in carbon dioxide and other human emissions into the planet''s atmosphere, NASA said.    The NASA and NOAA analyses showed that the world''s oceans all warmed last year, offsetting somewhat more moderate temperatures over land.    The average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 0.69C above the 20th century average, NOAA said.    Last year''s warmth surpasses the previous records of 2005 and 2010 by 0.04C, the scientists said.    The United Nations said it was already clear that promises for emissions curbs at the Paris summit in December 2015 would be too weak to get on track for a UN goal of limiting global warming to two degrees Celcius above pre-industrial times.    Commenting on the record-breaking year, meteorologists Jeff Masters and Bob Henson:    Climate change is already causing significant impacts to people and ecosystems, and these impacts will grow much more severe in the coming years. New research is painting a clearer picture of the tough decisions that lie ahead if we hope to reduce the serious risks that we and our planet face. As we approach the critical negotiations in Paris in December to hammer out a new binding climate change treaty, we should keep in mind that we can choose to take steps to lessen the damage of climate change, and the cost of inaction is much higher than the cost of action.    http://www.nasa.gov/press/2015/january/nasa-determines-2014-warmest-year-in-modern-record/ http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/2014/13 Visit the related web page
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