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NASA Says 2005 Was Warmest Year on Record

 

January 25, 2006 — By Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters

WASHINGTON — Last year was the warmest recorded on Earth's surface, and it was

unusually hot in the Arctic, U.S. space agency NASA said Tuesday.

 

All five of the hottest years since modern record-keeping began in the 1890s

occurred within the last decade, according to analysis by NASA's Goddard

Institute for Space Studies.

 

In descending order, the years with the highest global average annual

temperatures were 2005, 1998, 2002, 2003 and 2004, NASA said in a statement.

 

" It's fair to say that it probably is the warmest since we have modern

meteorological records, " said Drew Shindell of the NASA institute in New York

City.

 

" Using indirect measurements that go back farther, I think it's even fair to say

that it's the warmest in the last several thousand years. "

 

Some researchers had expected 1998 would be the hottest year on record, notably

because a strong El Nino -- a warm-water pattern in the eastern Pacific --

boosted global temperatures.

 

But Shindell said last year was slightly warmer than 1998, even without any

extraordinary weather pattern. Temperatures in the Arctic were unusually warm in

2005, NASA said.

 

" That very anomalously warm year (1998) has become the norm, " Shindell said in a

telephone interview.

 

" The rate of warming has been so rapid that this temperature that we only got

when we had a real strong El Nino now has become something that we've gotten

without any unusual worldwide weather disturbance. "

 

Over the past 30 years, Earth has warmed by 1.08 degrees F , NASA said. Over the

past 100 years, it has warmed by 1.44 degrees F.

 

Shindell, in line with the view held by most scientists, attributed the rise to

emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and ozone, with

the burning of fossil fuels being the primary source.

 

The 21st century could see global temperature increases of 6 to 10 degrees F,

Shindell said.

 

" That will really bring us up to the warmest temperatures the world has

experienced probably in the last million years, " he said.

 

To understand whether the Earth is cooling or warming, scientists use data from

weather stations on land, satellite measurements of sea surface temperature

since 1982, and data from ships for earlier years.

 

Source: Reuters

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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