2008: Cool By Recent Standards

If you thought 2008 was a bit cooler than recent years, you were right.

But not much cooler. One of the problems with the recent spate of extremely warm years is that most of us have forgotten what a "normal" year feels like. (Hint: it feels like the temperatures we've had since November: relatively cold.)

2008 was only a bit cooler--according to the folks over at Capital Weather Gang, 2008 was the 8th, 9th or 10th warmest year on record, depending on who's keeping score, although it was the coolest year of the recent decade. That's still pretty warm. In fact, if 2008 had occurred in 1996, it would be the warmest year on record.

So ignore the climate change deniers who are running around declaring that the era of global warming has come to an end.