New NOAA Study Finds: 2010 and 2005 Hottest Years On Record

According to researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2010 has tied 2005 as the Earth's warmest on record.  The combined global land and ocean surface temperature for 2010 was 1.12 degrees Fahrenheit (0.62 degrees Celsius) above the 20th-century average. The NOAA research found that in each of the last 34 years, the global temperature has been above the 20-century average. Nine of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2001. The exception was 1998, the third-warmest.

The record compiled by NOAA is based on data from hundreds of land-based weather stations and ships and buoys at sea, sent by more than 200 countries. The data go back to 1880.

In July, an international study by 300 scientists concluded that the Earth has been getting warmer over the past 50 years and that the past decade was the warmest on record. Those conclusions broadly matched the findings of the most recent report by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, published in 2007.

The NOAA study also found that global ocean-surface temperatures for 2010 were tied with 2005 as the third-warmest on record. Global land-surface temperatures for 2010 were the warmest on record, at 1.80 degree Fahrenheit (1.0 degree Celsius) above the 20th-century average. (WSJ, 1/13/2011)