Global temperatures continue on a rising trend, according to scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. The implications of this trend are quite serious, and I’ll discuss some new studies after reviewing the temperature data for 2010.
The worldwide average surface temperature for the past year tied with 2005 as the warmest year on record, a record that goes back to 1880. And the year 2010 was the 34th consecutive year in which temperatures were above the 20th century average, according to a preliminary analysis by NCDC.
The decade of 2001–2010 was the warmest ever recorded for the
surface of the Earth during that 130-year time period. It was some
1.01 degree F. above the 20th century average. The previous record
for a full decade was also recent, 1991-2000, when the temperature
was .65 degrees F. above the average.
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