Washington ? This year has been one of the hottest on record, scientists in the United States and Britain reported Thursday, a finding that puts eight of the past 10 years at the top of the charts in terms of warm temperatures.

Three studies released Thursday differ slightly, but they all indicate the Earth is rapidly warming.

NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies has concluded 2005 is the warmest year in recorded history, while the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.K. Meteorological Office call it the second hottest after 1998.

All three groups agree that 2005 is the hottest year on record for the Northern Hemisphere, at roughly 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit above the historical average.

The three teams used the same set of ocean and land temperature records, but they analyzed the data differently and compensated for gaps in the climactic record in alternate ways.

As a result, NASA scientists estimate 2005 average global land and sea temperatures were 1.04 degrees Fahrenheit above average, just beating out 1998’s 1-degree elevation.

NOAA researchers, by contrast, say this year’s global average is 1.06 degrees Fahrenheit above average, compared with 1.1 degrees in 1998.

The Earth has warmed 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit in the past century, with 1 degree of this increase occurring in the past 30 years.