2012 Among the 10 Warmest Years on Record : NOAA

A latest report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration listed the year 2012 as among the top 10 warmest years on record. The two countries that had their warmest year on record were the United States and Argentina.

This 2012 State of the Climate report released by the American Meteorological Society (AMS) was reviewed by scientists from the NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville and scientists from 52 other countries. The report provides a complete update on the various indicators of global climate, the significant weather events and other information gathered via the environmental monitoring stations and instruments that were placed on land, sea, ice, and sky.

"Many of the events that made 2012 such an interesting year are part of the long-term trends we see in a changing and varying climate - carbon levels are climbing, sea levels are rising, Arctic sea ice is melting, and our planet as a whole is becoming a warmer place," said acting NOAA Administrator Kathryn D. Sullivan, Ph.D. 

The melting of the Arctic took a major chunk of the 2012 climate report because the ice is melting at an unprecedented rate setting new records. The reports says that 97 percent of the Greenland ice sheet melted during the summer, which was four times more when compared to the 1981-2010 average melt extent.

The report was based on climate indicators that include the levels of greenhouse gases, lower and upper atmospheric temperatures, temperatures of the sea surface, rise in sea level, cloud cover, ocean salinity, snow cover and sea ice extent.

Based on the dataset, the year 2012 was among the 10 warmest years on record,  ranking either 8^th or 9^th . The database also revealed that the global average sea surface temperature was listed as the 11th warmest on record in 2012.  A drastic rise in the rate of major greenhouse gases that include methane, carbon monoxide and  nitrous oxide was also noticed.

The climatic conditions in the Arctic were a major part of the finding as noticeable changes were seen in this area. The report states that the warming at Arctic continued at twice the rate of lower latitudes and the minimum sea ice extent in Arctic in September and the sea ice extent in June in the Northern Hemisphere set new record lows. In areas of high evaporation, the oceans were saltier than average indicating a rise in precipitation in rainy areas and an increase in evaporation in dry areas.

National Climatic Data Center director Tom Karl concludes, "It's critically important to compile a big picture. The signs that we see are of a warming world."