Statistically Speaking
Following a cold snap in January and February of 2008, a chorus of climate skeptics heralded that we were headed for global cooling and that all the warming of the past century would be wiped out in one year.
Not quite.
According to World Meteorological Organization records, 2008 entered the books as the 10th hottest year on record. The global combined sea-surface and land-surface air temperature for 2008 was estimated at 0.31°C/0.56°F above the 1961-1990 annual average of 14.00°C/57.2°F.
The 10 warmest years on record:
1. 1998
2. 2005
3. 2003
4. 2002
5. 2004
6. 2006
7. 2007
8. 2001
9. 1997
10. 2008
Statistics courtesy of: World Meteorological Organization and Dean Bill Chameides' blog, The Green Grok, thegreengrok.com
