WASHINGTON — The year 2012 was the warmest on record for the United States, and among the 10 warmest years on record worldwide, according to the 2012 State of the Climate report released by the American Meteorological Society. The peer-reviewed report, with scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) serving as lead editors, was compiled by 384 scientists from 52 countries. It provides a detailed update on global climate indicators, notable weather events, and other data collected by environmental monitoring stations and instruments on land, sea, ice, and sky.

Conditions in the Arctic were a major focus in 2012, with the region experiencing unprecedented change and breaking several records, according to the report. Sea ice shrank to its smallest “summer minimum” extent since satellite records began 34 years ago. In addition, more than 97 percent of the Greenland ice sheet showed some form of melt during the summer, four times greater than the 1981-2010 average melt extent.

The report used dozens of climate indicators to track and identify changes and overall trends to the global climate system. These indicators include greenhouse gas concentrations, temperature of the lower and upper atmosphere, cloud cover, sea surface temperature, sea-level rise, ocean salinity, sea ice extent and snow cover. Each indicator includes thousands of measurements from multiple independent datasets.

For details, see the full 2012 State of the Climate report.

Publication date: 8/26/2013

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