Tom Wigley, director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in Britain, said that his data, taken from stations on the ocean as well as on land, found that 1987 was ''the warmest year on record'' and that the three warmest years in the record were 1987, 1983 and 1981.

He said in a telephone interview, that while some of his data supported the predictions of the greenhouse models, others did not. For one thing, he said, the temperature levels in the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere did not rise as fast as the models predicted. 'Hard to Deny'

But he said that if ''the next 10 years are as warm or warmer, it would be very hard to deny the greenhouse effect,'' adding, ''It is very hard to deny now.''

''Chances are the greenhouse effect is not as strong as some people say, but you can't say it isn't happening at all,'' he said.

Both Dr. Wigley and Dr. Hansen said temperatures taken by Soviet scientists were similar to theirs.

Temperatures in the United States in this century did not rise as fast as global temperatures; several explanations are possible, including a different climate circulation over the country and pollution particles that block solar radiation. Still, measurements by the National Climatic Data Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show that the last few years were substantially warmer than any year since the 1950's in the United States.

Thomas Karl, research meteorologist for the center, said that 1986 and 1987 ''were both unusually warm'' in this country with an average of 54 degrees Fahrenheit for both years.

''Our data are not inconsistent with the greenhouse effect,'' Mr. Karl said, but ''I am more cautious than others. I found you can get in a heap of trouble if you look at a climate time series and draw an inference. You can get swings that last for 10 or 20 years.'' Gradual Rise Since 1800's