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NOAA REPORTS WARMER 2005 FOR THE UNITED STATES, NEAR-RECORD WARMTH GLOBALLY: HURRICANES, FLOODS, SNOW AND WILDFIRES ALL NOTABLE
After a record-breaking hurricane season, blistering heat waves, lingering drought and a crippling Northeast blizzard, 2005 is ending as a warm year in the United States. It will come close to the all-time high global annual average temperature, based on preliminary data gathered by scientists at the NOAA National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. NOAA scientists report that the 2005 annual average temperature for the contiguous United States will likely be 1.0 degrees F (0.6 degrees C) above the 1895-2004 mean, which will make 2005 one of the 20 warmest years on record for the country. The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season also set records with 26 named storms, of which 14 were hurricanes, exceeding the 1969 record of 12 hurricanes, and seven were major hurricanes. Of the seven major hurricanes, an unprecendented three reached category five status, with a forth reaching the greatest possible windspeed within category four of the Saffir-Simpson scale. The global annual temperature for combined land and ocean surfaces is also expected to be very close to the record global temperature that was established in 1998. The largest temperature anomalies were widespread throughout high latitude regions of the Northern Hemisphere and included much of Russia, Scandinavia, Canada and Alaska.
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NOAA DISENTANGLEMENT TEAM WORKS TO REMOVE MATERIAL FROM ENDANGERED RIGHT WHALE — The NOAA Fisheries Service led a team of federal, state and non-profit biologists and scientists to rescue an entangled North Atlantic right whale off the southeast coast of the United States. The team was successful at removing much of the gear entangling the whale, but lost their ability to track the whale after the telemetry buoy that had been signaling the whale’s location broke free.

NOAA Magazine - The stories behind the headlines.

NOAA Attributes Recent Increase in Hurricane Activity to Naturally Occurring Multi-decadal Climate Variability

New England Red Tide Information Center