High temperatures across most of the globe made 2014 Earth's hottest year in records dating back to 1880, a government report showed.
The combined land and ocean temperature on the planet was 1.24 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a statement. An independent analysis by the National Aeronautic and Space Administration also found 2014 to be the warmest on record.
Rising global temperatures can lead to higher ocean levels, disruptions to global agriculture, the spread of tropical diseases and changes in weather patterns, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
"Climate change is perhaps the major challenge of our generation," said Michael Freilich, director of NASA's Earth Science Division in the Space Mission Directorate in Washington.
The western U.S., parts of Russia, interior South America as well as most of Europe experienced record heat, NOAA said. Northern Africa, western Australia and parts of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans also were warmer.
"The record warmth was spread around the world," NOAA said in a statement.
The 2014 temperature beat previous highs set in 2005 and 2010 by 0.07 degree, the agency said.
On land alone, the average annual temperature was 1.8 degrees above the 20th-century average, the fourth-highest since 1880, NOAA said. The globally averaged sea surface temperature was 1.03 degrees above the 20th-century average and an all-time high, surpassing previous records set in 1998 and 2003.
Average annual sea ice in the Arctic fell to 10.99 million square miles, the sixth-smallest in 36 years of record keeping. Antarctic ice totaled 13.08 million square miles, the most on record.
The growth of ice in the Antarctic is surprising, said Gavin Schmidt, deputy director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. The ice in the south is more complicated than that in the Arctic, he said.
Wind changes brought on by a hole in the ozone layer and fresh water running into the ocean because of ice melting on the Antarctic continent may be contributing to what is happening there, Schmidt said.
December had the highest temperatures ever for that month, with a combined global and ocean temperature 1.39 degrees above the 20th-century average, NOAA said.
A Section on 01/17/2015