The year's average temperature of 55.3 degrees Fahrenheit across the Lower 48 was more than 3.2 degrees warmer than the average for the 20th century, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration reported.

CNN: NOAA: 2012 broke U.S. heat records

The 5 year moving SST temperature average shows that the warming trend peaked in 2003 and a simple regression analysis shows an eight year global SST cooling trend since then .

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Golfing here has a Lowcountry charm not found anywhere else, with palmettos and moss hanging from the trees, plus well over 200 days of sun a year and an average balmy temperature of 70F.

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The global average temperature for last year would have been a record 15 years ago, an indication that what used to be unusual heat is more commonplace.

NPR: World Warm Last Year, But Not Like Record US Heat

The men had been detained in a room with no ventilation, even though the average temperature in the city at this time of the year is higher than 38C, it added.

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It's also worth chucking into the mix that the global average temperature variation between even the strongest El Nino event and the next ordinary year is a fraction of a degree Celsius - certainly less than the rise of about 0.6C that we've seen since the beginning of the study period, in 1950.

BBC: Warm, wet - and warring?