Past decade warmest on record

If you thought the temperature in your part of the world has been getting warmer, you’d be right. “The 2009 State of the Climate” report released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration defines 10 measurable planet-wide features used to gauge global temperature changes. The relative movement of each of these indicators proves consistent with a warming world.

More than 300 scientists in 48 countries contributed to the report. It confirms that the past decade was the warmest on record and that the Earth has been growing warmer over the last 50 years. Each of the last 3 decades has been much warmer than the decade before.

“The temperature increase of 1°F over the past 50 years may seem small, but it has already altered our planet,” said Deke Arndt, chief of the Climate Monitoring Branch of NOAA’s National Climatic data Center.