The year 2005 is likely to be the warmest year on record in the northern hemisphere. by Jo Farrow
A report issued today by The Met Office’s Hadley Centre and the University of East Anglia (UEA), has stated that 2005 is likely to be the warmest year on record in the northern hemisphere
Coupled sea surface temperatures and land surface temperatures from January to the end of November are currently 0.65 C above the long-term average in the northern hemisphere.
Temperatures have also been above average in the southern hemisphere, but to a lesser extent. A rise of 0.32 C above the average in the southern hemisphere makes 2005 the fourth warmest year in this part of the world.
Globally, the year to date is the second warmest on record, falling just short of the 1998 record and continues the trend of increasing record global temperatures. The ten warmest years have all occurred in the last 11 years.
Adam Scaife, a Climate Variability scientist at the Met Office Hadley Centre said; “These figures show that global warming is continuing and are consistent with what we expect to occur from our research into greenhouse gas emissions.”
However, some are more sceptical. A professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology explains that natural weather cycles could be accountable for a warmer than average year.
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