Climate Change: The Next Generation: NOAA's National Climatic Data Center: State of the Climate Global Analysis for January 2010

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

NOAA's National Climatic Data Center: State of the Climate Global Analysis for January 2010

Global Highlights

The combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for January 2010 was 0.60 °C (1.08°F) above the 20^th century average of 12.0 °C (53.6 °F). This is the fourth warmest January on record.
The global land surface temperature for January 2010 was 0.83 °C (1.49 °F) above the 20^th century average of 2.8 °C (37.0 °F)—the twelfth warmest January on record. Land areas in the Southern Hemisphere were the warmest on record for January. In the Northern Hemisphere, which has much more land, comparatively, land surface temperatures were 18^th warmest on record.
The worldwide ocean surface temperature for January 2010 was the second warmest—behind 1998—on record for January, 0.52 °C (0.94 °F) above the 20^th century average of 15.8 °C (60.5 °F). This can be partially attributed to the persistence of El Niño across the equatorial Pacific Ocean. According to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC), El Niño is expected to continue through the Northern Hemisphere spring 2010.

January	Anomaly	Rank (out of 131 years)	Warmest/Next Warmest Year on Record
Global
Land	+0.83°C (+1.49°F)	12^nd warmest	2007 (+1.74°C/3.13°F)
Ocean	+0.52°C (+0.94°F)	2^nd warmest	1998 (+0.56°C/1.01°F)
Land and Ocean	+0.60°C (+1.08°F)	4^th warmest	2007 (+0.81°C/1.46°F)
Northern Hemisphere
Land	+0.85°C (+1.53°F)	18^th warmest	2007 (+2.17°C/3.91°F)
Ocean	+0.50°C (+0.90°F)	2^nd warmest	1998 (+0.55°C/0.99°F)
Land and Ocean	+0.63°C (+1.13°F)	6^th warmest	2007 (+1.15°C/2.07°F)
Southern Hemisphere
Land	+0.77°C (+1.39°F)	1^st warmest	2006 (+0.75°C/1.35°F)
Ocean	+0.55°C (+0.99°F)	2^nd warmest	1998 (+0.58°C/1.04°F)
Land and Ocean	+0.58°C (+1.04°F)	2^nd warmest	1998 (+0.60°C/1.08°F)