2005 Will LIkely Become Hottest Year On Record

[hatrack]

WASHINGTON -- New international climate data show that 2005 is on track to be the hottest year on record, continuing a 25-year trend of rising global temperatures. Climatologists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies calculated the record-breaking global average temperature, which now surpasses 1998's record by 0.1 degree Fahrenheit, from readings taken at 7,200 weather stations around the world.

The new analysis comes as government and independent scientists are reporting other dramatic signs of global warming, such as the record shrinkage of the Arctic Ocean ice cover and unprecedented high temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico.

Late last month a team of University of Colorado and NASA scientists announced that the Arctic ice cap shrank this summer to 200 million square miles, 500,000 square miles less than its average area between 1979 and 2000. And a scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration determined that sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico were higher in August than at any time since 1890, which may have contributed to the intense hurricanes that struck the region this year.

"At this point, people shouldn't be surprised this is happening," said Goddard atmospheric scientist David Rind, noting that 2002, 2003 and 2004 were the second-, third- and fourth-warmest years on record.

EDIT

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/sunday/news_34f4857721f02092000b.html

[NNadir]

1. It sorta makes you wonder about 2006.

[philb]

2. With all the news on hurricane, most likely aren't aware N. Florida is in

major drought this summer, virtually no rain for the last 2 months.
Record hurricanes some places and drought in others.