Scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies say 2005 appears to have been the warmest year in a century.
The climate experts say the average global temperature for combined land and ocean surfaces during 2005 was 0.39 degrees celsius higher than instrument recordings from the late 1800s. The National Climatic Data Center conducted the analysis for the report.
Previously, the warmest year of the century was 1998.
The USA Today newspaper quotes the director of NASA's Goddard Institute, James Hansen, as saying during the past 30 years, Earth has warmed a total of more than one degree. He says that makes it the warmest it has been in about 10,000 years.