Late last week, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies made it official: January 2000 through December 2009 was the warmest decade on record. This confirms a National Climatic Data Center’s projection back in November, based on incomplete data. (I wrote about that here, just as the Copenhagen climate talks were getting underway.) Now, NASA’s Earth Observatory has released the new image above depicting how temperatures around the globe departed from the 1951 to 1980 mean during this past decade.
Almost all of the Earth was warmer, with the Arctic experiencing the greatest increases in temperature. As the map graphically illustrates, only a very small portion of the globe experiencing cooling. (Note: Gray areas depict locations where temperatures were not recorded.)
One Comment
‘Note: Gray areas depict locations where temperatures were not recorded.’
Yes, but not all of them.
‘…with the Arctic experiencing the greatest increases in temperature.’
Yep. That’s where most of the grey areas are. NASA has extrapolated the record warming ‘record’ up there.
Nothing wrong with that – except when it’s undeclared.
One Trackback
[...] 2000-2009: a decade for the record books | CEJournal [...]