Last Year Was Warmest in a Century

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/tech/2006/jan/24/012406014.html

NEW YORK (AP) - Last year was the warmest in a century, nosing out 1998, a federal analysis concludes.

Researchers calculated that 2005 produced the highest annual average surface temperature worldwide since instrument recordings began in the late 1800s, said James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

The result confirms a prediction the institute made in December.

In a telephone interview, Hansen said the analysis estimated temperatures in the Arctic from nearby weather stations because no direct data were available. Because of that, "we couldn't say with 100 percent certainty that it's the warmest year, but I'm reasonably confident that it was," Hansen said.

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[TechBear_Seattle]

1. I seem to remember....

That the five hottest years on record were all within the last 10 years. The ten hottest years on record have all been within the last 15 years.

[China_cat]

2. Even though this is South Carolina

I have never before in the 42 years I've spent winters here had to have air conditioning on in January.

Until this year. And today is the 5th day this month I've needed it.

[phantom power]

3. Jeff Masters just pointed out...

that the previous record (1998) involved an El Nino event. Last year beat out 1998, and without any El Nino:

A study released by NASA yesterday confirmed that 2005 was the warmest year on record, narrowly beating out 1998. That year a strong El Niño--a warm water event in the eastern Pacific Ocean--added significant warmth to global temperatures. The new record was set without the help of an El Niño. This suggests that a very sustantial warming trend is affecting the globe and more "warmest years ever" will continue to occur in this decade--particularly if they are El Niño years. Global warming since the middle 1970s is now about 0.6° C (1° F ). Total warming in the past century is about 0.8° C (1.4° F). The five warmest years over the last century have occurred in the last eight years. Reliable instrument records of global temperatures extend back to about 1880, but the consenus scientific view is that the current level of warmth has been unmatched for at least the past one million years.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=287&tstamp=200601