This color-coded map shows temperature anomalies for July 2010. Areas with above-average temperatures appear in shades of red, and areas with below-normal temperatures appear in shades of blue.
2010 was the 4th warmest summer in the 131-year-temperature record. Unusually warm summers in the U.S. and Europe created the impression of global warming run amuck, but extrapolating global trends based on one or two regions can be misleading.
These maps illustrate just how much warmer temperatures were in 2009 and the decade (2000-2009) compared to average temperatures recorded between 1951 and 1980.
Separate analyses by NASA and NOAA agree that the past year was hotter than any other since 1880. The ten warmest years in the instrumental record, with the exception of 1998, have now occurred since 2000.
The GISS Land-Ocean Temperature Index put 2013 into the top ten warmest years in the global record, even though temperatures in the United States were not much warmer than usual.