21 December 2010
Japan Meteorological Agency
Global Temperature in 2010 Most Likely Second Warmest
(preliminary)
The annual anomaly of the global average surface temperature in 2010 (i.e., the average of the near-surface air temperature over land and the sea surface temperature) is estimated at 0.36°C* above normal (based on the 1971 – 2000 average), most likely to become the second warmest record since 1891 (Figure 1, Table 1).
* Note: This value (hence its rank in the record, either) is subject to change, because at the moment of this announcement it is only a preliminary result that was calculated based on temperature observations for the period of January to November in 2010.
High temperature deviations were noticeable especially in the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, in addition to most of the land surface over the world except in Central Asia (Figure 2).
On a longer time scale, the annual global average surface temperature has been rising at a rate of about 0.68°C per century.
The average temperature over land is expected to hit the warmest record.