How Do We Know 2014 was the Warmest Year on Record?

More than likely, you will have heard on the news or read in the newspaper that 2014 was the warmest year across the globe since records began. The temperature rose above the long-term average by a reported 0.68°C (1.24°F), which is just the latest and biggest in a series of ongoing spikes in global temperature which have meant that 14 of the 15 hottest years on record have now happened consecutively.

But how do we know this? Where do these scientists get their figures from? Estimating a global temperature for the whole year is no mean feat and involves much analysis and cooperation from the world’s largest meteorological centres.

Three Separate Databases

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) released its predictive figures citing 2014 as a record-breaking year back in December, which have now been confirmed. The way that the WMO collates its figures is by combining data from three independent databases around the world. Two of these lie in the United States – namely, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – while the third is the UK’s own Met Office.

The three sets of data revealed that while 2014 wasn’t actually the warmest year on land across the globe, it definitely was in the oceans… and when this information was combined, the resulting temperatures were the highest seen since records began in the late 1800s.

Indeed, some parts of the globe actually witnessed temperatures well below the averages taken over a near 30-year period between 1952 and 1981, especially in the United States. However, this was more than compensated for by record temperatures in Europe and other regions, including other regions of the USA.

Undeniable Proof of Climate Change

The steady rise in our planet’s temperature, culminating in the last year, is surely definitive proof for the deniers that climate change is very much a reality which we need to face – and sooner rather than later.

Upon the release of the data from a NAOO spokesperson, the PR director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change in London, Bob Ward, stated:

“The new global temperature record announced today completely exposes the myth that global warming has stopped. There is mounting evidence all around the world that the Earth is warming and the climate is changing in response to rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.”

At the close of this year, the UN will hold a summit on climate change in Paris – which Pope Francis is expected to attend in an attempt to stress the importance of urgent global action – and the event is hoped to provide a definite plan to tackle this increasingly-threatening problem.

However, the fact that we are still worrying about improving the quality of the air we breathe and reducing the damage we are doing to our environment more than half a decade after the issue was raised is concerning. This article, Clean Air - Still a Political Objective after 60 Years, looks in more detail at how the Clean Air Act of 1956 was intended to address environmental abuse in the UK specifically, how it has succeeded – and how it has failed.