Climate indicators

The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have brought together observed datasets to show how a range of variables have changed over the previous 150 years, up to and including 2009.

The raw data is publicly available from the NOAA website, however, we have produced a range of graphs as a simple visual representation of the changes. Revised graphs will be uploaded as the subsequent data is available.

• Ground level temperature over land
• Temperature near earth’s atmosphere (troposphere)
• Sea-surface temperature
• Sea level
• Area covered by snow in winter (northern hemisphere)
• Area of Arctic sea ice each September
• Specific humidity
• Heat content of top 700 m of ocean

Air temperatures have increased globally, while warming of the oceans has resulted not only in reduced sea-ice, but also thermal expansion of the oceans which, together with glacial and ice-sheet melt, has added to the observed increase in sea level rise. Humidity levels are also rising as warm air holds more water, and higher air temperatures cause an increase in evaporation.

• Click on each graph for a presentation-ready version

Ground level temperature over land:

Datasets: CRUTEM3, NASA/GISS, Lugina et al, NOAA/NCDC
Change relative to 1961–1990

Temperature near earth’s atmosphere (troposphere):

Datasets: HadAT2, IUK, RAOBCORE, RATPAC, RICH, RSS, UAH
Change relative to 1979 from satellites and radiosondes

Sea-surface temperature:

Datasets: COBE, ERSST3, HadSST2, ICOADS, Kaplan, SOC
Change relative to 1961–1990

Sea level:

Datasets: Church & White, Gornitz & Lebedeff, Holgate & Woodworth, Jevrejeva et al, Leuliette et al, Trupin & Wahr
Change relative to 1961–1990

Area covered by snow in winter (northern hemisphere):

Datasets: IPCC AR4 SPM, Robinson & Frei
Change relative to 1961–1990

Area of Arctic sea ice each September:

Datasets: NASA bootstrap alogorithm, HadISST, Fetterer et al

Specific humidity:

Datasets: Dai, HadCRUH, Berry & Kent

Heat content of top 700 m of ocean:

Datasets: Domingues et al, Ishii & Kimoto, Willis et al, Lyman & Johnson, Palmer et al, Levitus et al, Gouretski & Reseghetti
Change relative to 1993–2009