Met Office expect 2010 to tie with 1998 for hottest year on record

Met Office scientists are now finalising analysis of last years' global temperature record, but told Climate Action that data up to the end of November (2010) shows 2010 as the hottest year since weather recording began in the late 19th century. The Met Office compiles records from weather stations around the globe, along with the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and the Climatic Research Unit (CRU), at the University of East Anglia.

Records released by Nasa and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), on Wednesday (January 12) also tied 2010 as the warmest year on record, but with 2005. Their record hottest year is not 1998, due to differences between how Nasa and the Met Office interpret data from areas where no weather stations are found.

Regardless of which data set is used – both show the Earth's temperatures above average for the 34th consecutive year and joint warmest since 1880. The Earth's temperature was 0.62C above the 20th-century average of 13.9C, data from the US National Climatic Data Centre (NCDC) showed.

2010 also saw a record number of extreme weather events: floods in Pakistan; forest fires in Russia and the extreme cold weather in Europe and North America. Some climate change sceptics argued that the cold weather spells must signify that climate change is not happening. "There has been some notion that the climate stopped warming in 2005," said David Easterling, an NCDC climatologist. "This just lacks credibility".

"To my mind, it reinforces the notion that we are seeing a signal for increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere," Easterling said.

Laura Middleton | Climate Action

Image: Nasa Goddard Photo and Video | flickr