Annual Climate Report Shows We Live in a Warming World:

Global temperatures continued to increase in 2009, and atmospheric greenhouse gas levels also rose, according to a new “State of the Climate Report” from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The report, released today as a supplement to the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, offers a detailed look at last year’s major weather and climate events, and reviews long-term global climate trends. Overall, it paints a picture of a world that continues its long-term warming trend, albeit with considerable variability from year-to-year.

The report finds that earth warmed more last year than in the preceding two years, and reiterates the conclusion that the first decade of the 21st century, 2000-2009, was the warmest decade on record, both at the earth’s surface and in the lower atmosphere.

The State of the Climate report attributes many of the significant weather and climate events of 2009 to natural variability. For example, the return of El Niño, a periodic cycle of ocean warming in the tropical Pacific which influences global weather patterns, helped increase global temperatures. It states that El Niño may account for much of last year’s global increase in temperature compared to 2008 — about 0.1 degrees Celsius warmer in 2009.

“Global surface temperatures in 2009 saw a return to near-record levels as the cooling in the tropical Pacific associated with the 2007/08 La Niña event gave way to strengthening El Niño conditions in 2009,” the report states. The average global land and sea surface temperatures for 2009 was about 0.5 degrees Celsius warmer than the average between 1961-1990.

The home page for the report (as well as those for prior years) is here. You can grab the whole thing in low-res at 6.6 MB or hi-res at 110.2 MB, as well as individual chapters.