... And Earth's Warmest Year on Record

Last year was the warmest recorded on Earth's surface, and it was unusually hot in the Arctic, US space agency NASA said recently. 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. Over the past 30 years, Earth has warmed by 1.08 degrees F (0.6 degrees C), NASA said. Over the past 100 years, it has warmed by 1.44 degrees F (0.8 degrees C).

More information and images are available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/environment/2005_warmest.html

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