2014 ranks hottest year on record: WMO

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on Monday said in a statement that it has ranked 2014 as the hottest year on record, what they said was an ongoing meteorological trend.

The WMO said the average global air temperatures over land and sea in 2014 were 0.57 degrees Celsius above the long-term average of 14 degrees Celsius for the 1961 to 1990 reference period.

Meanwhile, global sea-surface temperatures reached record levels in 2014 due to around 93 percent of excess energy trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse gases from fossil fuels and other human waste ending up in the oceans.

"Analysis of the data sets indicates that 2014 was nominally the warmest on record, although there is very little difference between the three hottest years," WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said in the statement.

"Fourteen of the fifteen hottest years have all been this century. We expect global warming to continue, given that rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the increasing heat content of the oceans are committing us to a warmer future," he said.

WMO noted the high 2014 temperatures occurred in the absence of a fully-developed El Nino, a warm ocean water phenomenon. High temperatures in 1998, which was the hottest year on record before this century, occurred during a year when El Nino was strong.

Strong weather and climate services are now more necessary than ever before to increase resilience to disasters and help countries and communities adapt to a fast-changing and, in many places, less-hospitable climate, said Jarraud.