Climate Change: Global Temperature

Given the tremendous size and heat capacity of the global oceans, it takes a massive amount of added heat energy to raise Earthʼs average yearly surface temperature even a small amount. The roughly 2-degree Fahrenheit (1 degrees Celsius) increase in global average surface temperature that has occurred since the pre-industrial era (1850-1900 in NOAA’s record) might seem small, but it means a significant increase in accumulated heat.