Annual State of the Climate Report (external link, .pdf file in English) released July 17, 2014; prepared by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and reviewed by 425 climate scientists from 57 different countries. Among its findings:

• 2013 was somewhere between the 2nd and 6th hottest year on record.
• Records were broken for greenhouse gases, Arctic heat, warm ocean temperatures and sea rising levels.
• Australia experienced its warmest year on record, Argentina its second warmest and New Zealand its third warmest.
• The Antarctic’s land based glaciers continued to melt and shrink.
• The Arctic’s sea ice is declining by about 14% per decade.

• The permafrost is melting. For the 2nd year in a row, record high temperatures in permafrost were recorded in Alaska.
• Sea surface temperatures for 2013 were among the 10 warmest on record.