NOAA: Greenhouse gases help make 2006 warmest year ever

Jim Erickson, Rocky Mountain News

Published January 10, 2007 at midnight

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Last year was the warmest on record in the U.S., and the buildup of heat-trapping greenhouse gases was partly to blame, federal climate officials said Tuesday.

Last year squeaked past 1998 by a small fraction of a degree to take over the top spot, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The 2006 average annual temperature for the contiguous U.S. was 55 degrees Fahrenheit, 0.07 degrees warmer than 1998.

In the U.S., the past nine years have been among the 25 warmest years on record, a streak that is unprecedented in records dating to 1895, according to NOAA.

The buildup of heat-trapping gases from tailpipes and smokestacks contributed to the 2006 warming, according to NOAA, an agency recently criticized for allegedly trying to prevent its researchers from freely discussing global climate change.

"It's refreshing to see them actually be able to say that. I applaud it," Boulder climate researcher Kevin Trenberth said of the NOAA greenhouse-gas acknowledgement, included in a Tuesday news release.

"I think it's an encouraging sign," said Trenberth, who works at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Last January, NOAA issued a news release announcing that 2005 had tied 1998 as the planet's warmest year on record. It made no mention of greenhouse warming.

"I think it was probably a little more clearly stated in (Tuesday's) release, but this is certainly something we've always been aware of and always try to communicate to the public," said Jay Lawrimore, director of the climate monitoring branch at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.

"We expect to see a continuation of warmer temperatures, warmer seasons, more heat waves, fewer days below freezing, increases in drought and heavier precipitation events" because of global warming, Lawrimore said.

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