Global Temperatures

The years 2001-2008 rank among the ten warmest years of the 130-year (1880-2009) record and 2009 will certainly join them as one of the ten warmest years of the global surface temperature record. Based upon several factors, including the known year-to-date (January through October) temperature anomaly, recent historical values for November and December, and the presence of an El Niño episode in the tropical Pacific, the global January-December temperature for combined land and ocean surfaces is estimated to be about 0.56°C (1.01°F) above the 20th century average, which would be the fifth warmest since records began in 1880. However, uncertainty associated with the November and December outcome suggests a range of most likely ranks of fourth, fifth or sixth warmest on record. Regardless of this year's exact placement, the 2000s decade (2000-09) will be the warmest on record for the global, with a surface temperature about 0.54 °C (0.96 °F) above the long-term (20th century) average. This will easily surpass the 1990s value of 0.36 °C (0.65 °F).