Global climate trend since Nov. 16, 1978: +0.13 C per decade
February temperatures (preliminary):
Global composite temp.: +0.35 C (about 0.63 degrees Fahrenheit) above20-year average for January.
Northern Hemisphere: +0.68 C (about 1.22 degrees Fahrenheit) above 20-yearaverage for January.
Southern Hemisphere: +0.02 C (about 0.04 degrees Fahrenheit) above 20-yearaverage for January.
January temperatures (revised):
Global Composite: +0.30 C above 20-year average
Northern Hemisphere: +0.44 C above 20-year average
Southern Hemisphere: +0.17 C above 20-year average
(All temperature variations are based on a 20-year average (1979-1998) forthe month reported.)
Notes on data released March 11, 2009:
Large areas of much warmer than normal temperatures over Western Greenland,China and the Northern Pacific Ocean pushed the Northern Hemisphere'saverage temperature in February to the fifth highest level seen in the 30+year satellite-based temperature record, according to Dr. John Christy,director of the Earth System Science Center (ESSC) at The University ofAlabama in Huntsville.
The warmest Northern Hemisphere February on record was in 1998, during amajor El Nino Pacific Ocean warming event. The average temperature north ofthe equator that month was 0.86 C (about 1.55 degrees Fahrenheit) warmerthan seasonal norms. Other Februaries when the Northern Hemisphere was warmwere in 2007 (+0.75 C), 2006 (+0.74 C), and 2004 (+0.73 C).
As part of an ongoing joint project between The University of Alabama inHuntsville, NOAA and NASA, Dr. John Christy and Dr. Roy Spencer, a principalresearch scientist in the ESSC, use data gathered by microwave soundingunits on NOAA and NASA satellites to get accurate temperature readings foralmost all regions of the Earth.
This includes remote desert, ocean and rain forest areas for which reliableclimate data are not otherwise available.
The satellite-based instruments measure the temperature of the atmospherefrom the surface up to an altitude of about eight kilometers above sealevel. Once the monthly temperature data is collected and processed, it isplaced in a "public" computer file for immediate access by atmosphericscientists in the U.S. and abroad.
Neither Spencer nor Christy receives any research support or funding fromoil, coal or industrial companies or organizations, or from any private orspecial interest groups. All of their climate research funding comes fromstate and federal grants or contracts.
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