planted city

It’s Gettin’ Hot in Here: ‘State of the Climate: 2011 Global Surface Temperature’

From ClimateWatch Magazine:

Earth’s average annual surface temperature is higher today than it was when record-keeping began in the late 1800s, an indicator of long-term, global-scale climate warming. The red line shows how far above or below the 1981-2010 average (dashed line at zero) the combined land and ocean temperature has been each year since 1880. The data shown are one of several temperature analyses included in the State of the Climate in 2011, all of which show a warming trend.

The 2011 average global surface temperature was between 0.07 and 0.16 degrees Celsius warmer (0.13 and 0.29 degrees Fahrenheit), than the 1981–2010 average, based on a range of analyses. Including the 2011 temperature, the rate of warming since 1971 is now between 0.14° and 0.17° Celsius per decade (0.25°-0.31° Fahrenheit), and 0.71-0.77° Celsius per century (1.28°-1.39° F) since 1901.

Check out the rest of the article here.

Related:

• Presentation Slides: ‘State of the Climate 2011’ (NOAA)
• ‘Cool Pacific Pattern Shaped 2011 Weather Extremes; Heat Dominates U.S. in 2012’ (New York Times)

(Graphic sources: NOAA)