Keith has written another thought provoking article over at the Earth Blog. Check it out.

The data has still not changed, but I have added a green horizontal line from the top of the January 2007 bar, along to the (orange) bar for February 1998. February 1998 is used by many climate sceptics as evidence that the global temperature is no longer rising. It was the hottest month in living memory.

As of January 2007, January 2007 was the hottest month in living memory.

Some people would cast this off as a statistical abnormality, a blip of little significance, an insignificant piece of data in a sea of facts. But I want you to think about this, and draw your own conclusions:

– Every month for the last 10 years was hotter than the average for the entire period between 1880 and 2007. Not 51%, 90% or 99% of them. Every single month.

– 4 of the last 5 years were hotter, on average, than any other year in the last decade except 1998. The hottest year since 1880 was 2005.