"Global
The global annual temperature for combined land and ocean surfaces is
expected to be sixth warmest on record for 2006. Some of the largest
and most widespread warm anomalies occurred in southern Asia and North
America. Canada experienced its warmest winter and warmest spring since
its national records began in 1948.
Including
2006, six of the seven warmest years on record have occurred since 2001
and the ten warmest years have occurred since 1995. The global average
surface temperature has risen between 0.6 degrees C and 0.7 degrees
C since the start of the 20th Century, and the rate of increase since
1976 has been approximately three times faster than the century-scale
trend.
The extent
of Arctic sea ice was second lowest on record in September, when annual
sea ice extent is at its lowest point of the year. This was only slightly
higher than the record low extent measured in 2005. According to the
National Snow and Ice Data Center, this is part of a continuing trend
in end-of-summer Arctic sea ice extent reductions of approximately eight
percent per decade since 1979, when recordkeeping began."
From the NOAA: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2006/s2759.htm
