<div>It is rather amazing that the last month with a global temperature below the 20th century average was February 1985, according to the National Climate Data Center. Does 25 years of consecutive months above the 20th century average indicate a climate trend? </div>
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<div>Given the reasoning of many of the so called "skeptics" (many are not really skeptics, of course, but confirmation bias driven denialists, while all competent scientists are skeptics by training, including the climate scientists who state that the scientific evidence, after rigorous skeptical analysis, is compelling that human impacts are altering climate to a degree requiring action) of anthropogenic climate warming, a valid climate trend can be derived only from 12-13 years of data, given the common argument that because no year since 1998 has exceeded that year for global temperature, global warming has stopped or is decreasing (an argument apparently not considering the fact that when analyzed decade by decade, the past decade is the warmest on record). </div>
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<div>However, the first 6 months of 2010 has exceeded 1998 for global temperature:</div>
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<div><a href="http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20100715_globalstats.html">http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20100715_globalstats.html</a></div>
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<div><a href="http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/?report=global&year=2010&month=6&submitted=Get+Report">http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/?report=global&year=2010&month=6&submitted=Get+Report</a></div>
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<div><font size="4">Global Highlights</font></div>
<ul class="highlights">
<li class="main">The combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for June 2010 was the warmest on record at 16.2°C (61.1°F), which is 0.68°C (1.22°F) above the 20<sup>th</sup> century average of 15.5°C (59.9°F). </li>
<li class="main">June 2010 was the fourth consecutive warmest month on record (March, April, and May 2010 were also the warmest on record). This was the 304<sup>th</sup> consecutive month with a global temperature above the 20<sup>th</sup> century average. The last month with below-average temperature was February 1985. </li>
<li class="main">It was the warmest January–June on record for the global land and ocean temperature. </li></ul>
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<div class="main">Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett</div>