1990s were millennium's warmest years

Copyright 1999, United Press International
December 16, 1999

The 1990s was the warmest decade of the past thousand years, a top British meteorologist reported today.

The Times of London said research by Phil Jones of the University of East Anglia shows that seven of the world's 10 warmest years since records began were in the 1990s, including 1999.

Jones told the Times that "although we do not have instrumental records going back further than the mid-19th century for global temperatures, analysis of tree rings, ice cores, corals and historical records indicate that the 1990s were the warmest decade of the millennium."

Jones reported that data from the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, also shows 1999 was the fifth-warmest year on record based on global observations going back to 1860.

Temperatures in the 1990s were 0.33 C higher than in 1961-90 and 0.7 C higher than those at the turn of the century.

Still, 1999 was a bit of a reprieve from 1998.

"The rapid cooling of temperatures in the equatorial Pacific has contributed to 1999 being significantly cooler than in 1998, the hottest year on record," said David Parker of the British Meteorological Office.

"This large, natural variability is exactly what we expect to see superimposed on a long-term warming due to manmade greenhouse gas emissions," he said. His forecast for 2000 shows a high probability it will be "warmer than 1999 as the cold Pacific slowly warms."

In November, researchers at the British Meteorological Office said new evidence suggests that temperatures could rise far higher than now supposed due to a huge, unforeseen surge in carbon dioxide by the middle of the next century.

That could increase droughts, hurricanes and food shortages and raise sea levels. Unless carbon dioxide emissions are cut, the researchers said, the average land temperature will be six degrees hotter than the predicted 41 degrees Fahrenheit.

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