It8217;s official now

WASHINGTON, January 9: The year 1997 was the warmest on record, as measured by land and ocean surface temperatures, according to top US Government scientists. Global temperatures last year increased by an average of.083 degrees celsius over the previous record year, 1990.

The greatest increases were recorded in the eastern Pacific, the northeastern Atlantic, and much of northern and east Asia, according to data released on Thursday by the National Climatic Data Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA.

According to a NOAA map of global temperatures anomalies recorded during 1997, the greatest above-average increases in temperature 8212; two degrees celsius or more 8212; occurred in west Europe, the west coast of the Americas, the Caribbean, sub-Arctic regions, west and southeastern Africa, southern India, and northern southeast Asia.