2007 has begun with a sizzle, punctuating an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report that called human-caused warming “unequivocal.”

Average global temperatures rose into record territory last month, making it the Earth’s warmest January since reliable record-keeping began in the 1880s, according to a new analysis posted Thursday morning.

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National Climate Data Center

Just how warm was it? January’s combined average temps over land and sea were 1.53°F (0.85°C) warmer than the 20th century average of 53.6°F (12.0°C) and greater than any seen over the past 128 years, based on preliminary data by NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.

The temps beat the previous record set in 2002, when they averaged 1.28°F (0.71°C) above the century’s mean. The driver of last month’s record appeared to be land-surface temperatures that hit 3.40°F (1.89°C) above average. The global ocean-surface was cooler, in a manner of speaking. It was fourth warmest on record, but only 0.1°F (0.05°C) cooler than the record hit during the very strong El Niño of 1998.


Highlights from the NCDC analysis:

  • Global surface temperatures increased at a rate near 0.11°F (0.06°C) per decade over the century, but the rate has jumped threefold since 1976 to 0.32°F (0.18°C) per decade. The biggest surge has occurred in the Arctic.
  • The contiguous United States averaged 31.8°F (-0.1°C), or 0.9°F (0.5°C) above the 20th century average of 30.9°F based on preliminary data. It was the 49th warmest on record.
  • Severe weather. Snow and ice storms struck the central United States, with bad storms as far south as San Antonio and Houston.
  • And yet: drought was impacting 25 percent of the contiguous states, with snowpack below normal in the West, where it was the third driest January on record.

    • Alaska was warmer and warmer than normal, too, averaging at 0.7°F above the 1971-2000 mean, the 43rd warmest January since 1917, the NCDC reported.

    More detail from the Alaska Climate Research Center:

    The New Year started out much colder than normal for many locations across the state. However, temperatures rebounded after about the first week and were above normal overall during January for much of the southeast, interior, and west coast. Only a few areas reported a cooler than normal month; the arctic coast and portions of southcentral and southwest Alaska. Precipitation amounts were above normal for many areas with the highest deviations along the Bering Sea Coast.