Shanghai reported an average temperature of 18.2 degrees centigrade in its urban areas this year, the warmest year since it started to record weather information in 1873.

The temperature is 0.1 of a degree centigrade higher than the last record in 2004, a source with the municipal meteorological bureau said on Saturday.

The bureau said the city recorded 17.5 degrees centigrade on average this year, the warmest year since Shanghai set the first meteorological observatory in its suburban areas in 1961.

Shanghai experienced its warmest autumn in 55 years this year, with the average temperature reaching 20.8 degrees centigrade between September and November.

Officials and meteorological experts mainly blamed global warming for the temperature surge.

"Due to global warming, east China has seen increasingly warmer weather in the past ten years or so, and this is especially true in Shanghai," said Huang Jiaxin, secretary general of Shanghai Meteorological Academy, earlier last month.

The rapid expansion of urban areas also contributed to the temperature rise, as the temperature in urban areas is usually higher, said officials from the municipal meteorological bureau.

(Xinhua News Agency December 31, 2006)