Temperature numbers are in from across the globe for last year, and it looks like the year 2000 will rank right near the top as one of the warmest years on record world-wide.

Global temperatures in 2000 were about the same as in 1999, roughly seven-tenths of a degree above the long-term average. The only years warmer were 1998, 1997, 1995, and 1990. Remarkably, the ten warmest years on record have all occurred since 1983. So while global temperatures have increased a little more than 1^oF over the last century, more than half of that increase has been in just the last 25 years.

Now all of this talk of warmth might sound a little off-base, considering what a chilly November and December it was - in fact, that two-month period was the coldest November-December on record in the United States. But it just goes to show that you can't look at only one month, or one country for that matter, to get a feeling for the pulse of the globe. If you're looking for global temperature changes, and lots of people are these days, you truly need to sample the entire earth.