Despite Subtle Differences, Global Temperature Records in Close Agreement

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Last week, Zach reported on the announcements made by NOAA and NASA concerning the year 2010 and its place in the list of warmest years on record.

The statistics placed 2010 as tying with 2005 as the warmest year in the 131-year instrument record.

NASA’s Adam Voiland, a member of the Earth Science News Team, has taken the time to write up a really great post on the NASA news site explaining why, even though there might be differences in the announcements made by various agencies — GISS, NCDC, the MET Office — they are actually all in rather close agreement. The following starts off with a quote in response to the claim that the three datasets vary a great deal:

“In reality, nothing could be further from the truth,” said Hansen. Global temperatures have continued to rise steadily. “The three official records vary slightly because of subtle differences in the way we analyze the data, but they agree extraordinarily well,” said Reto Ruedy, one of Hansen’s colleagues at GISS who helps analyze global surface temperatures.

All three records show peaks and valleys that vary in virtual sync with each other since 1880. All three show particularly rapid warming in the last few decades. And all three show the last decade is the warmest in the instrumental record.

Keep reading over at the NASA website.

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