An international report has confirmed what many climate scientists have suspected — that both surface and ocean temperatures in 2014 were the warmest ever recorded.
In addition, concentrations of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, continued to increase, the annual climate report of the American Meteorological Society says.
Land temperatures, sea temperatures and greenhouse gases all reached historic levels, according to the State of the Climate 2014 report, published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
The report, featuring input from more than 400 climate scientists working in 58 countries around the globe, includes updates on worldwide climate indicators, significant weather events and data gathered by monitoring instruments and stations on land, sea, ice and from orbit in space.
"The variety of indicators shows us how our climate is changing, not just in temperature but from the depths of the oceans to the outer atmosphere," says Thomas R. Karl, director of the National Centers for Environmental Information of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which helped compile the report.
Four separate global sets of data all confirmed 2014 as the warmest year since climate record-keeping began, NOAA reported in a statement.
More than 20 countries exceeded their previous warmest records, the agency said.
In the world's oceans, warm temperatures were particularly prevalent in the North Pacific Ocean and the Arctic Ocean, the report said.
Levels of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide continue to climb, the report authors say; atmospheric CO2 concentrations reached a global average of 397.2 ppm last year, compared with the average of 354.0 in 1990, the first year the annual State of the Climate report was issued.
Overall, the new report echoes the findings of an earlier NOAA report released in March that also cited 2014 as Earth's warmest year since systematic record-keeping began more than 130 years ago.
Seven months of the year tied or set global temperature records for that respective month, the report said, noting that 13 of the 15 warmest years on record globally have been recorded since the year 2000.
"Over the years we have seen clearly the value of careful and consistent monitoring of our climate, which allows us to document real changes occurring in the Earth's climate system," says Keith Seitter, executive director of the American Meteorological Society.
