December 19th, 2008

From Green Right Now reports

The year 2008 is expected to finish as one of the 10th warmest years on record, since record keeping began more than 150 years ago, according to a report this week from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Also in 2008, Arctic sea ice dropped to its second-lowest level since modern satellite monitoring began in 1979.

The WMO estimates 2008′s global combined sea-surface and land-surface air temperature is about half of a degree Fahrenheit above the annual average temperature of of 57.2°F (14°C) from 1961-1990. However, the global average temperature was slightly lower than in very recent years because of strong La Nina pattern that cooled ocean temps.

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