Scientists announced on Friday that 2014 was the hottest year ever registered, since 1880 (first year when scientists kept a record of annual temperatures all over the globe).
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced together the all time record temperatures on Friday. The Japan Meteorological Agency released a statement last week to express the same information, although all three of them use different methods to analyze the data related to global temperatures. Monthly temperatures in the last year surpassed historical benchmarks.
According to the data released to the press by NOAA the average temperature on global ocean surfaces and land was 0.69 degrees Celsius, or 1.24 degrees Fahrenheit. This is above the average of 20th century. 2005 and 2010, the previous years that registered record temperatures were exceeded by 0.07 degrees Fahrenheit.
Cooler places on Earth that were known to have a low average temperature broke the record too. A part of these places include in-land of South America, western and eastern coastal parts of Australian continent, Far East Russia, a large surface of northern Africa, most of Europe, the western Alaska and the western United States.
Notably, the temperatures on the sea surface registered a global average last year that set a multi-annual record too. In the past, 1998 and 2003 were the warmest years ever registered. The last year exceeded the record temperature in 1998 by 0.09 degrees Fahrenheit and the record temperature in 2003 by 0.05 degrees Celsius. NOAA stated that huge areas of oceans set a record for the temperature including the western to central equatorial Pacific, a large part of the northeastern Pacific near the Gulf of Alaska, large areas of the southern to central Indian Ocean, an important swath of the Norwegian Sea, southeastern and northwestern Atlantic.
Since the year 2000, a shocking number related to average temperatures arises. 9 of the 10 hottest years recorded occurred in this period, according to NOAA data.
No event in the tropical area of the Pacific Ocean took place last year. No El Niño or another phenomenon was observed. Usually these events tend to boost the global average temperature and have an important role of releasing the pressure on the climacteric and interdependent conditions in the weather. No event similar to an El Niño suggests that is no more required for such a phenomenon to happen and to increase the global temperatures.
Image Source: Newsweek