Despite Bitter Winter In New York, 2014 Was The Warmest Year On Record
NEW YORK(CBSNewYork) -- It's official, 2014 will go down in the climate books as the hottest year on record, so far.
As CBS2's Vanessa Murdock reported, word came in independently from NOAA and NASA on Friday that 2014 beat out 134 prior years to claim the title of 'warmest year on record.'
According to NOAA, the average global temperature was nearly one and a quarter degrees above normal.
"The data shows conclusively that 2014, is the warmest year since observation began in 1880. Not only that it is joining most of the years since the turn of the century in being among the warmest years in that record," NASA Scientist, Dr. Steven Pawson said.
For 38 consecutive years no, global temperatures have been above normal. Locally it has been a different story. Temperatures in 2014 were actually slightly below normal.
In Central Park the average temperature was 54.4 degrees, that's .6 below the normal of 55.
According to the National Weather Service in Upton, New York, that means 2014 ranked 67th warmest. It's not hard to believe if falls so far from the top considering last year's bitterly cold winter. It's hard to forget the seemingly endless supply of snow, ice, and arctic air.
"Globally, warmest year on record. Here not the case," Dr. David Robinson, NJ State Climatologist at Rutgers University, said, "The point is you live locally, but you have to think globally."
Dr. Robinson said persistent global warming is a direct result of greenhouse gas emissions, and the consequences extend beyond rising temperatures.
"The earths getting warmer, the oceans are getting warmer. Sea ice is leaving, snow cover is melting more rapidly," he explained, "When it comes to the melting of sea ice and snow cover that only helps to amplify the warmth. It doesn't change sea level, but it only amplifies the warmth."
It's an example of how the global climate is truly the sum of its parts. Everything is linked. Frigid here doesn't mean frigid everywhere. Last year it was quite the opposite, and now 2014 will go down as the warmest year on record so far.
Nine of the ten warmest years on record happened in this century.