Publication Date January 16, 2015 | BBC News

2014 warmest year on record, say US researchers

2014 was the warmest year on record. Source: NOAA
2014 was the warmest year on record. Source: NOAA

2014 was the warmest year on record, with global temperatures 0.68C (1.24F) above the long-term average, US government scientists have said. The results mean that 14 of the 15 warmest years on record have occurred since the turn of the century...Last month, the World Meteorological Organization released provisional figures that predicted the past 12 months were set to be record breakers. The long-term global average temperature is calculated from data collected between 1951 and 1980. "This is the latest in a series of warm years, in a series of warm decades," said Gavin Schmidt, director of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.