Climate Change: NOAA Reveals 2014 was the Warmest Year on Record

First Posted: Jul 17, 2015 10:01 AM EDT

It turns out that 2014 was Earth's warmest year on record. Scientists have taken a closer look at temperatures over the past year and have found that globally, 2014 was the hottest yet recorded.

The report was compiled by NOAA's Center for Weather and Climate at the National Centers for Environmental Information. It's based on the contributions from 413 scientists from 58 countries around the world. It provides a detailed update on global climate indicators, notable weather events and other data collected by environmental monitoring stations.

So what does the report show? It turns out that greenhouse gases continued to climb in 2014. In fact, the concentrations reached historic high values once more. There were also record temperatures observed near the Earth's surface; four independent global datasets showed that the year was the warmest on record and that this warmth was widespread across land areas.

So where was it the warmest? Europe had its warmest year on record, and more than 20 countries exceeded their previous records. Africa had above-average temperatures across most of the continent and Australia saw its second warmest year on record. In fact, North America was the only major region to experience below-average annual temperatures.

Perhaps one of the most important areas to note, though, is the Arctic. It experienced its fourth warmest years since records began in the early 20^th century. Snow melt in this area occurred 20 to 30 days earlier than the 1998 to 2010 average, and there were record high temperatures on the North Slope of Alaska that were measured at four of five permafrost observatories.

"This is the 25^th report in this important annual series, as well as the 20^th report that has been produced for publication in BAMS," said Keither Seitter, AMS Executive Director, in a news release. "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."

You can see the full report for yourself online.