2006 to be sixth-warmest year on record: U.N. agency

2006 is set to be the world's sixth-warmest year since records began 150 years ago, the World Meteorological Organization said on Thursday, offering more evidence of a trend most scientists blame on greenhouse gases.

The ten warmest years have all occurred in the last 12 years, according to the United Nations weather agency.

It said 2006 had been marked by extreme drought and heavy flooding in the greater Horn of Africa, record wildfires in the United States, torrential rainfall in the Philippines, shrinking sea ice in the Arctic and the warmest autumn in Europe.

An average temperature of 0.42 degrees Celsius above the annual average from 1961-90 put 2006 on track to be the "sixth warmest year on record," the WMO said in a preliminary report based on data through November. 1998 was the warmest year.