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Washington. After eight months, 2010 is running neck-and-neck with 1998 for the record as the hottest year.

The planet’s average temperature for January to August was 14.7 degrees Celsius, tying the record heat set for that period in 1998, said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a US federal agency.

The NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center also reported that it was the third hottest August on record with an average temperature for the month of 16.2 degrees Celsius. The hottest August was 1998, followed by 2009.

It also said the meteorological summer — June to August — averaged 16.2 degrees Celsius, making it the second hottest summer on record worldwide behind 1998.

A separate report from the National Snow and Ice Data Center, also in the United States, said Arctic sea ice cover appeared to have reached its minimum extent for the year and is the third-lowest extent recorded since satellite measurements began in 1979.

Arctic sea ice covered an average of six million square kilometers during August, 22 percent below the 1979-2000 average extent.

Melting sea ice is part of a pattern of changes atmospheric scientists attribute to global warming, which has been documented in rising temperatures over the last several decades.

Other changes include melting ice in Greenland and Antarctica, a decline in glaciers and changes in weather patterns around the world.

The new climate report noted that August was hotter than normal in eastern Europe, eastern Canada and parts of eastern Asia, but cooler than average in Australia, central Russia and southern South America.

It was the hottest August since 1961 in China, but the coolest August since 1993 in Britain. 

 
Associated Press