2014 was the warmest year?

2014 was the warmest year?

Well … satellite measurements just released – the only global measurement of temperature in the portion of the atmosphere the models say should warm – say otherwise.

It is immediately apparent from the graph that 2014 was not “the warmest year on record.” Several previous years had been warmer, including the El Niño years 1998 and 2010. In fact, some 70% of the years since the last Ice Age were warmer than today.

And the global temperature spread, for 1998 (below left) and for 2014 (below right) confirms  the non-news:

So it looks like neither 2014’s performance nor the two-decade trend (+1.3^oC/century) indicate cause for concern. And this despite 2014’s el Niño conditions, the ever-rising CO2 concentration, and the exaggerated predictions of the “consensus” climate models.

On the other hand, those relying the efficacy of warmists’ models for their scary claims should be nothing if not concerned, since they continue to have virtually zero predictive value: