--- title: Climate Change and Global Warming: 2014 Was the Hottest Year On Record description: The average temperature around the world was higher last year than any year since modern record keeping began, climate experts said. canonical: https://time.com/3962695/climate-change-record-heat/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-17T17:43:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:05:04.508Z article:section: Science og:title: Last Year Was The Hottest Since Record Keeping Began og:description: The average temperature around the world was higher last year than any year since modern record keeping began, climate experts said. og:url: https://time.com/3962695/climate-change-record-heat/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Last Year Was The Hottest Since Record Keeping Began twitter:description: The average temperature around the world was higher last year than any year since modern record keeping began, climate experts said. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Last Year Was the Hottest Since Temperature Record Keeping Began > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is TIME's weekly climate and energy newsletter, written by senior correspondent Justin Worland. It connects the energy transition to the decisions reshaping business, technology, policy and markets. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Is Climate Change Causing Extreme Weather? [Watch (HLS stream): Is Climate Change Causing Extreme Weather?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/LQufbOt9.m3u8) (2:04)  _Published 2013-11-11. Is the frequency of extreme weather events a sign that global warming is gaining pace and exceeding predictions? Climate scientist Bill Patzert explains._  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jul 17, 2015 5:43 PM UTC  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jul 17, 2015 5:43 PM UTC The average temperature around the world was higher last year than any year since modern record keeping began, climate experts said on July 16. The findings, published in a new [report](http://www2.ametsoc.org/ams/index.cfm/publications/bulletin-of-the-american-meteorological-society-bams/state-of-the-climate/state-of-climate-in-2014/) in the journal _Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society_, show climate trends across the globe in 2014\. Researchers from all six inhabited continents found a worldwide sea level rise and record high concentrations of major greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. “Many of these things aren’t isolated,” said Thomas Karl**,** an official at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), on a conference call for journalists. “It’s a whole global climate system and though we do decompose and focus on individual variables, these things are inextricably linked to each other.” Almost every region in the world saw an increase in temperature, with the eastern part of North America standing out as the major exception. Twenty countries, including Mexico and many in Europe, set heat records. Overall, the past 18 years have seen 17 of the warmest years on record. The Arctic region, for example, had its fourth warmest year and also saw a decline in sea ice. The level of ice in September was nearly 20% below the average over the past three decades. The eight lowest levels have all occurred in the last eight years, according to the report. **Read More**: [Here’s Where People Are Most Concerned About Climate Change](http://time.com/3957316/climate-change-countries/) The report’s results are the latest in the growing evidence of the effects of climate change. “The report of new records in several key climate markers should not surprise us,” said Jeffrey R. White, a professor at the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs, in an emailed statement. “Earth’s land, ocean and atmosphere system is absorbing the heat with dramatic consequences that will play out in complex ways over time.” The report comes months before a United Nations conference on climate change that many hope will yield a binding agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions. But even a strong agreement will face a challenge that’s difficult to stop in its tracks. “I think of it more like a flywheel or a freight train,” said NOAA oceanographer Greg Johnson on a conference call with journalists. “It takes a big push to get it going, but it is moving now and will continue to move long after we stop pushing it.” ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Extreme weather was more frequent in recent years. Is it a sign that global warming is gaining pace and exceeding predictions? Now, has extreme weather been more frequent in recent years? The evidence is definitely to the contrary. The United States has always had extreme weather. We look back on our weather history. It's been punishing. Floods, droughts, tornadoes, hurricanes, great forest fires. Is global warming happening? No doubt about it. We're living in a warmer world. We're living in a melting world, sea levels are rising. Now, direct evidence of the foot print or the finger print of global warming, we're seeing more frequent, more intense and longer lasting heat waves. As far as hurricanes, tornadoes, forest fires, floods and drought; the evidence is definitely not in. The consensus among almost all scientists is, is that it's a small finger print, not a large foot print. But what is true is that in this country, in the United States, we live in many areas with great risk to drought, [ NOISE ] to tornadoes, to hurricanes. And so part of the dialog is not only extreme weather and global warming but is the amount of risk we can tolerate. Now, looking to the future, global change, global warming it definitely is accelerating and it will have an impact on extreme weather. But at this point, not much. 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