Annual checkup of Earth’s climate says we’re in hotter water

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In their annual, detailed physical of Earth's climate, scientists say the world is in increasingly hot and rising water.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the American Meteorological Society's annual state of the climate report delves into the details of already reported record-smashing warmth globally in 2014, giving special attention to the world's oceans.

NOAA climate monitoring chief Deke Arndt, co-editor of the report, said the seas last year "were just ridiculous."

The report said ocean surface temperatures were the warmest in 135 years of records, with the seas holding record levels of heat energy at lower depths. Sea level also hit modern highs.

Jeff Severinghaus of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography said if this report is Earth's annual checkup, "the doctor is saying `you are gravely ill.'"

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