Year 2005 warmest in a century
This is a map of Earth, showing where it was warmer or cooler than average in 2005. Warmer-than-average temperatures (up to 3.5 degrees Celsius, or about 6.5 degrees Farenheit) are shown in yellows and reds. Cooler-than-average temperatures (up to 1 degree Celsius, or 1.8 degrees Farenheit) are shown in greens and blues.
DB: This is Earth & Sky, speaking with Gavin Schmidt, a climatologist at the Goddard Institute for Space Sciences.
JB: Climate experts at this institute announced in early 2006 that last year, 2005, was the warmest year for Earth in the past century.
Gavin Schmidt: And what it tells us is that the temperatures are actually increasing at the rate that we expect them to be increasing based on what we’ve been doing to the atmospheric composition. So, in some sense, it’s pleasing because it’s confirming what we thought would happen and in another sense, it’s a little worrying because it’s confirming what we thought might happen.
DB: We all know that Earth’s temperature varies slightly every year. So it’s tough to pick out a long-term trend in the midst of the “noise” of each year’s slightly different temperature. But it’s a fact that the 5 warmest years of the past century have occurred recently: in the past 8 years. Schmidt told Earth & Sky that current climate models are in line with what’s being observed, indicating that human emissions of greenhouse gases are warming the Earth.
JB: Over the past century, Earth has warmed by about 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit. Schmidt told us that climate models project Earth to warm by at least another 3 degrees Fahrenheit – in this century. Our thanks today to NASA — explore, discover, understand. We’re Block and Byrd for Earth & Sky.
NASA climate experts announced earlier this month (Jan. 24, 2006) that 2005 was the warmest year for Earth in over a century.
On Jan. 29, both the New York Times and Washington Post featured major stories on climate change in their Sunday morning editions.
The scientific debate on this subject does not center on whether global warming is real, or on whether it is already happening. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of studies over the past 15 years indicate that global warming is happening, that the oceans are warming, and that plants and animals are already responding to climate change.
The only true debate among scientists related to this story centers on a small detail: whether 2005 was or was not warmer than 1998. The discrepancy stems from the way various groups of climate researchers analyzed weather data for these years. The NASA analysis included the Arctic, which was unusually warm last year. Although there are few weather stations there, the available data from the Arctic – used in the NASA analysis – indicated that 2005 was warmer than 1998.
The measurements of Earth’s annual average surface temperature come from satellites, ships and land-based weather stations. For an explanation of how those data are collected and combined, click here.
Gavin Schmidt told Earth & Sky that 1998 was almost as warm as 2005. But there was one major difference between that year and 2005. That is, the year 1998 featured the cyclical return of unusually warm waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean known as the El Nino.
He said, ?The year 1998 was a huge El Nino year. When that’s happening, temperatures are warm for the globe on average. But this year, there were no El Ninos. So what you’re looking at is really just the mean temperature of the globe without much else going on … it beats the 1998 record when there was a big helping hand to that temperature. … And that’s kind of concerning.”
Schmidt added, “It is part of a trend. Next year may be colder, it may be warmer. But I will bet serious money that the 10-year mean temperatures for the next 10 years, are going to be warmer than the last 10 years.”
Climate models project Earth to warm by another 2 to 5 degrees Celsius – or 3 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit – in this century.
Our thanks to:
Gavin Schmidt
Climatologist
NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Sciences
New York, NY
Additional Teacher Resources
NASA: 2005 Warmest Year in Over a Century
The year 2005 was the warmest year in over a century, according to NASA scientists studying temperature data from around the world.
NASA: Climate Change Resource Reel
From polar ice to phytoplankton, parts of the earth system are constantly changing. At NASA, scientists strive to better understand these changes and how they are interconnected. Using remote-sensing data from satellites, this research diagnoses our planet’s current health and will help future generations and explorers understand the earth system as a whole.
