2006 Warmest Year in U.S. In 112 Years

WASHINGTON — Last year was the warmest in the continental United States of the past 112 years — capping a nine-year warming streak "unprecedented in the historical record," the government said yesterday.

It also said that climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels has set the stage for the ever hotter temperatures.

According to the government's National Climactic Data Center, the record-breaking warmth — which caused daffodils and cherry trees to bloom throughout the East this past New Year's Day — was the result of both unusual regional weather patterns and the long-term effects of the buildup of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

"People should be concerned about what we are doing to the climate," the chief of the climate monitoring branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Jay Lawrimore, said. "Burning of fossil fuels is causing an increase in greenhouse gases, and there's a broad scientific consensus that is producing climate change."