fireballs and earth packaged chocolates
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- This has been the world's warmest winter since record-keeping began more than a century ago, the U.S. government agency that tracks weather reported Thursday.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said the combined global land and ocean surface temperature from December through February was at its highest since records began in 1880.
A record-warm January was responsible for pushing up the combined winter temperature, according to the agency's Web siteexternal link.
"Contributing factors were the long-term trend toward warmer temperatures, as well as a moderate El Nino in the Pacific," Jay Lawrimore of NOAA's National Climatic Data Center said in a telephone interview from Asheville, North Carolina.
The next-warmest winter on record was in 2004, and the third warmest winter was in 1998, Lawrimore said.
The 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 1995.
"We don't say this winter is evidence of the influence of greenhouse gases," Lawrimore said.
However, he noted that his center's work is part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change process, which released a report on global warming last month that found climate change is occurring and that human activities quite likely play a role in the change.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WEATHER/03/15/warmest.winter.reut/index.html
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said the combined global land and ocean surface temperature from December through February was at its highest since records began in 1880.
A record-warm January was responsible for pushing up the combined winter temperature, according to the agency's Web siteexternal link.
"Contributing factors were the long-term trend toward warmer temperatures, as well as a moderate El Nino in the Pacific," Jay Lawrimore of NOAA's National Climatic Data Center said in a telephone interview from Asheville, North Carolina.
The next-warmest winter on record was in 2004, and the third warmest winter was in 1998, Lawrimore said.
The 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 1995.
"We don't say this winter is evidence of the influence of greenhouse gases," Lawrimore said.
However, he noted that his center's work is part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change process, which released a report on global warming last month that found climate change is occurring and that human activities quite likely play a role in the change.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WEATHER/03/15/warmest.winter.reut/index.html