According to NOAA, the globally-averaged temperature for 2010 will finish among the two warmest, and likely the warmest, in the 130-year-long climate record. (The current record was set in 2005, and so far the two years are in a statistical tie, which may be resolved as data compilation continues.)
Three months in 2010 were the warmest on record for that month.
2001-2010 is the warmest 10-year period since the beginning of weather records in 1850, the UN weather agency announced on Dec. 2.