The World Meteorological Organization reported on Monday that 2014 was the hottest year in a historical record of global temperature dating from 1880. That finding confirms an announcement made last month by two American scientific agencies and one in Japan.

The Geneva-based agency noted, however, that 2014 was warmer than some other recent years by only a few hundredths of a degree, within the error margin of global temperature measurements. That effectively means that 2014, 2010 and 2005 are in a statistical tie. A British group that tracks global temperatures recently cited the uncertainty in declining to name 2014 as the warmest year.

The World Meteorological Organization, the weather and climate arm of the United Nations, also pointed out that 14 of the 15 warmest years on record had all occurred in the 21st century, with 1998 being the only exception. “The overall warming trend is more important than the ranking of an individual year,” the secretary general of the agency, Michel Jarraud, said in a statement.