2014 officially the hottest year on record

Data released today has shown that 2014 was officially the hottest year since records began in 1880.

Here are some of the figures that contributed to making it a record breaking year:

• 2014 had an annual-average temperature which was 0.69°C above the 20th century average of 13.9°C
• Last year's record breaking temperatures mark the 38th consecutive year that the yearly global temperature was considered above average
• Global average ocean temperatures also reached a record high in 2014 and were recorded as being 0.57°C above the 20th century average of 16.1°C
• The other top ten hottest years on record, in order from top to bottom, were 2010, 2005, 1998, 2013, 2003, 2002, 2006, 2009 and 2007

The announcement that 2014 was officially the hottest year since records began is a sign of continuing climate change, said one expert.

Bob Ward, policy and communications director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics, said the new temperature record "exposes the myth that global warming has stopped."

He said: "No politician can afford to ignore this overwhelming scientific evidence or claim that global warming is a hoax.

"Climate change is happening, and as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, national scientific academies and scientific organisations across the world have all concluded, human activities, particularly burning of fossil fuels and deforestation, are primarily responsible."

An environmental expert at Nasa has said the fact that the 10 warmest years on record have all been since 1998 could be down to climate change factors.

Gavin Schmidt, director of Nasa's Goddard Institute of Space Studies, said: "While the ranking of individual years can be affected by chaotic weather patterns, the long-term trends are attributable to drivers of climate change that right now are dominated by human emissions of greenhouse gases."

2014 was named at the hottest year on record today after records showed that average global temperatures across the year were 0.69C above 20th century averages.

Data released by the National climatic data centre has shown that the top 10 hottest years in more than 130 years have all been since 1998.

A table released by climate experts, on the day that 2014 was officially named as the hottest year on record, shows the full break down:

Last year has been officially named as the hottest year on record.

Climate experts at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed 2014 had the highest global temperatures.