2000s warmest decade on record

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GENEVA, Switzerland, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Weather data from 2010 confirm that the global climate is experiencing a long-term warming trend, the U.N. World Meteorological Organization found.

WMO, in a report, said the average global temperature for 2010 was 0.95 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than a benchmark set 1961-90.

"The 2010 data confirm the Earth's significant long-term warming trend," said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud in a statement. "The 10 warmest years on record have all occurred since 1998."

Temperature averages from 2001-10 were the highest recorded by the WMO for a one-decade period. The warming trend contributed the lowest recorded amount of Arctic sea-ice, the report stated.

The report found, however, that it was "abnormally cold" in much of northern and western Europe, with monthly mean temperatures as much as 18 degrees Fahrenheit below average in some parts of Norway and Sweden.

Central England, the report said, posted its coldest month since 1890 in December 2010.

The WMO report noted there was a "high number of extreme weather events" recorded in 2010, from catastrophic flooding in Pakistan to a scorching heat wave throughout Russia.