NASA: 2009 tied for 2nd-warmest year, 00s hottest decade too

via arstechnica.com

Full story in the VIA, but this is worth highlighting: "The decade's warmth may also explain why many people didn't view 2009 as unusually hot—in essence, record temperatures are the new normal. Another factor is that the high global mean temperature was driven by the Southern Hemisphere, where it was the warmest year ever seen in NASA's records. For those with a US-centric view of global temperatures, NASA helpfully points out that the contiguous 48 states only account for about 1.5 percent of the world's surface."

Posted via web from Fred's posterous