The average global temperature was 14.4 degrees, making 2011 the 11th hottest on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said yesterday.

That was 0.5 degrees warmer than the 20th century average, officials said.

In fact, it was hotter than every year last century except 1998.

One reason 2011 was milder than recent years was the La Nina cooling of the central Pacific Ocean.

La Ninas occur every few years and generally cause global temperatures to drop, but this was the warmest La Nina year on record.

And 2011 also was the warmest year on record for Spain and Norway, and the second warmest for the United Kingdom.

In the US, 2011 was only .05 degrees above normal, which made it the 23rd warmest on record.

But 17 cities - including Houston, Miami, Trenton and Austin - had their warmest years.

This marks the 35th straight year that global temperatures were warmer than normal.

NOAA's records for world average temperatures date back to 1880.

The administration's National Climatic Data Centre director Tom Karl said it ``would be premature to make any conclusion that we would see any hiatus of the longer-term warming trend''.

``Global temperatures are continuing to increase.''