2005 Was the Hottest Year on Record
Posted on January 26, 2006
A NASA study has confirmed that 2005 was the hottest year ever recorded. Recorded temperatures go back to 1890 but scientists believe last year was the hottest year in thousands of years. It is yet more evidence that we are in a period of global warming. And as the chart on the right shows the five hottest years have all occurred very recently.
NASA says the years with the highest global average annual temperatures were 2005, 1998, 2002, 2003 and 2004. James Hansen, director of NASA GISS, says, "The five warmest years over the last century occurred in the last eight years,"
Drew Shindell of the NASA institute told Reuters, "It's fair to say that it probably is the warmest since we have modern meteorological records. "Using indirect measurements that go back farther, I think it's even fair to say that it's the warmest in the last several thousand years."
NASA has provided some images and data about the warm temperatures in 2005 on this webpage.