A New Estimate of the Average Earth Surface Land Temperature Spanning 1753 to 2011

A New Estimate of the Average Earth Surface Land Temperature Spanning 1753 to 2011

We report an estimate of the Earth’s average land surface temperature for the period 1753 to 2011. To address issues of potential station selection bias, we used larger sampling of stations than having prior studies. For the period post 1880, our estimate is similar to those previously reported by other groups, although we report smaller error uncertainties. The land temperature rise from the 1950s decade to the 2000s decade is 0.90 ± 0.05°C (95% confidence).