Global temperatures in 2011 tenth-highest on record

Global temperatures in 2011 are currently the tenth highest on record and are higher than any previous year with a La Niña event, which has a relative cooling influence, according to a report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
The 13 warmest years have all occurred in the 15 years since 1997. The extent of Arctic sea ice in 2011 was the second lowest on record, and its volume was the lowest.
These are some highlights contained in the provisional annual World Meteorological Organization Statement on the Status of the Global Climate, which gives a global temperature assessment and a snapshot of weather and climate events around the world in 2011. It was released today at the international climate conference in Durban, South Africa.
Global climate in 2011 was heavily influenced by the strong La Niña event that developed in the tropical Pacific in the second half of 2010 and continued until May 2011, the WMO obseverved.
“It was one of the strongest of the last 60 years and was closely associated with the drought in east Africa, islands in the central equatorial Pacific and the southern United States, and flooding in southern Africa, eastern Australia and southern Asia.”