Climatologists at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City have found that 2007 tied with 1998 for Earth’s second warmest year in a century.
The temperature data used came from weather stations on land, satellite measurements of sea-ice temperature since 1982 and data from ships for earlier years.
The eight warmest years in the GISS record have all occurred since 1998 and the 14 warmest years in the record have all occurred since 1990.
Over the past 30 years the Earth has warmed by about 0.6°C or 1.08°F. The greatest warming in 2007 occurred in the Arctic and neighboring high latitude regions. Global warming has a larger affect in polar areas, as the loss of snow and ice leads to more open water, which absorbs more sunlight and warmth. Snow and ice reflect sunlight; when they disappear, so too does their ability to deflect warming rays. The large Arctic warm anomaly of 2007 is consistent with observations of record low geographic extent of Arctic sea ice in September 2007.
1891 to 2006:
The animation to the right shows a basic demonstration of the increase in Annual Mean Temperature in 10 year increments from 1891 through 2006. Warmest temperatures are shown in red. (Credit: NASA/GISS and NASA/GSFC/SVS)
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