Why do different people look at global temperatures differently?


2014 was the hottest year in the modern record, according to two major scientific organisations.

NASA put 2014’s average temperature at 14.67 degrees C – 0.68C above the average – for the period 1951-80.

NOAA put global temperatures 0.69 degrees C  (1.24 degrees F) higher than the 20th-century average, US government scientists said on Friday.


The world was the hottest it has been since modern records began in 1880.

The 10 warmest years in the instrumental record, with the exception of 1998, have now occurred since 2000.

Scientists said 2014 was 0.07F (0.04C) higher than the previous records set in 2005 and 2010, and the 38th consecutive year of above-average temperatures.
That means nobody born since 1976 has experienced a colder-than-average year.

 2014 was not even affected by an El Nino, which has been the case for previous record years.
Yet still some people will claim nothing unusual is happening.

Partly this is because temperatures do not rise smoothly, and if short time periods are examined the rise is less obvious.


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