Science News Article | Reuters.co.uk

Science News Article | Reuters.co.uk: "By Deborah Zabarenko

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Last year was the warmest recorded on Earth's surface, and it was unusually hot in the Arctic, U.S. space agency NASA said on Tuesday.

All five of the hottest years since modern record-keeping began in the 1890s occurred within the last decade, according to analysis by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

In descending order, the years with the highest global average annual temperatures were 2005, 1998, 2002, 2003 and 2004, NASA said in a statement.

'It's fair to say that it probably is the warmest since we have modern meteorological records,' said Drew Shindell of the NASA institute in New York City.

'Using indirect measurements that go back farther, I think it's even fair to say that it's the warmest in the last several thousand years.'"