2010 tied with two other years (1998 and 2005) as the warmest
years ever recorded, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
Arctic sea-ice cover in December 2010 was the lowest ever measured.
WMO is the United Nations' authoritative voice on weather,
climate and water.
In 2010, global average temperature was 0.53°C (0.95°F)
above the 1961-90 mean. This value is 0.01°C (0.02°F) above
the nominal temperature in 2005, and 0.02°C (0.05°F) above
1998. The difference between the three years is less than the
margin of uncertainty (± 0.09°C or ± 0.16°F)
in comparing the data.
These statistics are based on data sets maintained by the UK
Meteorological Office Hadley Centre/Climatic Research Unit
(HadCRU), the U.S. National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), and the
U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
