International study finds last year among hottest on record

BOSTON — Last year was one of the world’s 10 hottest in records going back to the 19th century as concentrations of climate-changing greenhouses gases rose, a study showed.

Four international agencies reported the global average temperature was 0.2 to 0.21 Celsius (0.36 to 0.38 Fahrenheit) above the 1981 to 2010 average, making 2013 the second- to sixth-warmest year ever, according to the research edited by Jessica Blunden, a climatologist with ERT Inc., and Derek Arndt, chief of the climate monitoring branch at the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.

“I think the take-home message here is that the planet, the state of its climate, is changing more rapidly in today’s world than at any time in modern civilization,” Thomas Karl, director of the data center, said in a conference call with reporters Thursday.

The assessment of the world’s heat was part of a report compiled by 425 scientists in 57 nations for the State of the Climate 2013. The 262-page report also surveyed storms, ice caps and chemicals in the air. Two of the largest events of the year were Super Typhoon Haiyan and the Australian drought.

“You can think of it as an annual checkup on the planet’s health,” said Kathryn Sullivan, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The global temperatures were compiled by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, which found a rise of 0.21 degree Celsius; the Climatic Data Center, also a 0.21; the Hadley Centre of the U.K. Met Office, with 0.20; and the Japan Meteorological Agency, also 0.20. It was based on information from land sensing stations and buoys and ships at sea.