What is climate monitoring?

Why is climate monitoring important?

Met Office climate monitoring

Results for surface temperature - global and regional

What is climate monitoring?

Climate monitoring is the process of observing and understanding the atmosphere and other components of the Earth System (such as the oceans), for example monitoring global climate indicators such as a temperature changes and rainfall patterns.

These observations are used across the world in monitoring and modelling the climate, as well as in studies of the causes of climate change.

Why is climate monitoring important?

Accurate records - Comprehensive monitoring allows us to produce accurate long-term records of what is happening to the climate.

Past, present, future - Comparing past and present climate and the changes which have taken place over thousands of years, means we can get a better picture of what affects the climate and how it might change in the future

Met Office climate monitoring

The Met Office Hadley Centre monitors a wide range of climate variables and indices, such as surface temperatures and sea-ice.

One of the flagship datasets the Met Office, in association with the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia, is the surface temperature dataset is Met Office-CRU (also known as HadCRUT3). Some Met Office datasets are freely available for academic and personal use (terms and conditions apply).

Independent analysis of these data are produced monthly in the US by the Goddard Institute for Space Science (GISS) at NASA and the National Climate Data Center (NCDC) at NOAA.

Further information and other data are available from www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs

Results for surface temperature

Overview

Met Office scientists have compared the three datasets. The long-term trends and large-scale patterns of temperature are similar, but the three analyses do not agree on all the details. These differences arise from slight differences in source data and the different choices made by the three centres in processing the data.

• Met Office-CRU (HadCRUT3): Data are averaged on to a regular grid. Where there is no data, the grid boxes are left empty.
• NCDC (NOAA): Data are averaged on to a regular grid. Where this is no data some of the gaps are filled by interpolation, in a way which is consistent with the surrounding observations.
• GISS (NASA): Data are interpolated over much wider regions where none is available (such as the oceans and near the Poles) to a maximum distance of 1200 km.

Global temperature results

Global average temperature is the base measurement of how our climate is changing. It is the only dataset for which we have records going back to the 1850s, so is our flagship dataset.

In order to keep up-to-date with what is happening to global temperatures we use a running 12-month mean rather than a calendar year.

The data show:

• Global temperatures are now some 0.75 °C warmer than they were 100 years ago.
• Since the mid-1970s, average global temperatures have increased at a rate of more than 0.15 °C per decade.

Global average temperatures in detail

The full record of surface temperatures for land and sea.

Regional temperature results

Regional temperature can vary widely, with some regions colder than average even when the global temperature is warmer than average.

Regional temperatures in detail

For more information on the current state of the climate see Evidence - the state of the climate (PDF, 1 MB) .