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Resources: Briefing notes |
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Resources
Briefing notes
Warmest years
Sea level change
The Gulf Stream
Global dimming
Hurricanes
Combining climate & socio-economic scenarios |
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Warmest years in the UK and globally – 2007 update
Author: Richard Westaway
Last updated: January 2008
Download a pdf of this article here.
1. Warmest years in the UK
The warmest years in the UK can be calculated from the Central England Temperature record, first established in 1659 and currently maintained by the Hadley Centre. This dataset gives the 15 warmest years since 1659 as:
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| Rank
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Year |
Difference (ºC) in mean average temperature from 1961 to 1990
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| 1 |
2006 |
+1.30 |
| 2
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1990 |
+1.16 |
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1999 |
+1.16 |
4
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1949 |
+1.15 |
| 5 |
2002 |
+1.13 |
| 6 |
1997 |
+1.06 |
7
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1995 |
+1.06 |
8
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2003 |
+1.03 |
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1989 |
+1.03 |
10
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1959 |
+1.01 |
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2004 |
+1.01 |
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2007 |
+1.01 |
13
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1733 |
+1.00 |
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1834 |
+1.00 |
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1921 |
+1.00 |
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Based on this dataset, 2007 was the joint 10th warmest year on record and 9 of the 12 warmest years since 1659 have occurred since 1990.
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Source: Hadley Centre |
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2. Warmest years globally
Two records are maintained of global mean temperature. The main reason
for variations between the two records is differences in their
treatment of missing data and that they present anomalies using different baseline periods.
a) The UK Met Office (UKMO) & Climatic Research Unit (CRU)
maintain a dataset of mean global air temperature anomalies over land
(relative to 1961-1990) from 1850 known as HadCRUT3. This dataset gives the 15 warmest
years since 1850 as:
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| Rank |
Year |
Difference (ºC) in mean average temperature from 1961 to 1990
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1
|
1998 |
+0.52 |
2
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2005 |
+0.48 |
3
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2003 |
+0.46 |
| 4 |
2002 |
+0.46
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| 5 |
2004 |
+0.43 |
| 6 |
2006 |
+0.42 |
| 7 |
2007 |
+0.41 |
| 8 |
2001 |
+0.40 |
| 9 |
1997 |
+0.36 |
| 10 |
1995 |
+0.28 |
| 11 |
1999 |
+0.26 |
12
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1990
|
+0.25 |
13
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2000 |
+0.24 |
14
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1991 |
+0.20 |
| 15 |
1983 |
+0.19 |
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Based on this dataset, 2007 was the 7th warmest year on record and the 14 warmest years since 1850 have all occurred since 1990.
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Source: Hadley Centre. Global average (NH + SH)/2 unsmoothed annual series used. |
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b) The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) maintains a dataset of mean global temperature anomalies (relative to 1951-1980) from 1880. This dataset gives the 16 warmest years (since 1880) as:
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| Rank
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Year |
Difference (ºC) in mean average temperature from 1951 to 1980
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1
|
2005 |
+0.62 |
| 2 |
1998 |
+0.57 |
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2007 |
+0.57 |
4
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2002 |
+0.56 |
5
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2003 |
+0.55 |
| 6 |
2006 |
+0.54 |
7
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2004 |
+0.49 |
8
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2001 |
+0.48 |
9
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1997 |
+0.40 |
| 10 |
1990 |
+0.38 |
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1995 |
+0.38 |
12
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1991 |
+0.35 |
13
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1999 |
+0.33 |
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2000 |
+0.33 |
| 15 |
1988 |
+0.31 |
16
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1996 |
+0.30 |
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Based on this dataset, 2007 was the joint 2nd warmest year on record and the 14 warmest years since 1880 have all occurred since 1990.
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Source: NASA GISS. Global-mean land-ocean temperature index unsmoothed time-series used.
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