2014 Was World’s Hottest Year Since Record Keeping Began in 1880, UN Says

Last year was the hottest recorded in data stretching back to 1880, the United Nations said, confirming a preliminary figure released in December.

The average global air temperature over land and sea in 2014 was 0.57 degree Celsius (1.03 degrees Fahrenheit) above the long-term average of 14 degrees for the 1961-1990 reference period, the World Meteorological Organization said today in an e-mailed statement. That’s greater than the 0.55-degree anomaly in 2010 and the 0.54 degree recorded in 2005, though the gap is smaller than the 0.1-degree margin of error, the WMO said.

“The overall warming trend is more important than the ranking of an individual year,” WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said in the statement. “Fourteen of the fifteen hottest years have all been this century. We expect global warming to continue, given that rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the increasing heat content of the oceans are committing us to a warmer future.”