The finding, based on separate analyses by scientists at the University of East Anglia and by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, is considered significant because it extends a trend that began in the 1980s. Six of the seven warmest years in more than a century were recorded during the decade.

The average for the eastern United States and a huge region of Eurasia was more than 2 degrees above the average temperature recorded between 1951 and 1980, [James Hansen] noted. "The only large region with temperature substantially below normal for the year was Greenland and the neighboring Canadian archipelago," he said.