SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal science officials say that for the third time in a decade, the globe sizzled to the hottest year on record.
Both the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA calculated that 2014 was the hottest year in 135 years of record-keeping. Earlier, the Japanese weather agency and an independent group out of University of California Berkeley also measured 2014 as the hottest on record.
NOAA said 2014 averaged 58.24 degrees Fahrenheit, 1.24 degrees above the 20th-century average.
NOAA had previously reported that Earth broke heat records in 2010 and 2005.
NOAA also said last month was the hottest December on record. Last year, six months set marks for heat.
Rutgers University’s Jennifer Francis and other climate scientists said this shows global warming continues unabated.