WMO -2013 Ties 2007 For Sixth-Warmest Year On Record

While the eastern United States shivers through an early spring cold snap, the globe as a whole continues to warm. The World Meteorological Organization announced Monday that they had confirmed that 2013 was the sixth warmest year on record, tied with 2007, in their annual report on the world’s weather and climate.

The report catalogued the numerous instances of extreme weather felt around the globe last year, from drought in Australia and South America to a rare Middle Eastern snowstorm to Typhoon Haiyan, which was one of the strongest storms to ever make landfall when it hit the Philippines in November. The WMO report even linked Haiyan’s destruction to climate change, saying that sea level rise exacerbated the flooding the island nation experienced. The extreme heat in Australia was also helped along by human-induced warming, an accompanying study found.

“There is no standstill in global warming,” WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said in a statement.

According to the WMO’s rankings, which are based on data from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the UK’s Met Office, 2013 was 0.9°F above the average global temperature from 1961-1990, tying it with 2007 for sixth place in the top 10 warmest years on record.

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http://www.climatecentral.org/news/2013-6th-warmest-year-on-record-climate-change-contributes-17218