• Nine of the decade’s years were among the 10 warmest on record.
     
  • The warmest year ever recorded was 2010​, followed closely
     
  • ​​When considered region by region, most areas of the world also experienced above average temperatures during the decade, particularly in 2010, when records were broken by over +1°C in some areas.
     
  • ​Many geographically large countries and regions saw decadal temperature anomalies over 2001–2010 that exceeded +1°C relative to the long-term average of 1961–1990.
     
  • Europe, including Greenland, saw a median temperature anomaly of +1.0°C for the decade.
     
  • ​​​Greenland recorded the world’s largest decadal mean temperature anomaly of +1.71°C.
     
  • ​Much of Asia also saw anomalies exceeding +1°C over the course of the decade, including China, and the Russian Federation. For the whole Asian continent the median temperature anomaly of the decade was +0.84°C.
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  • ​Africa experienced warmer-than-normal conditions in every year of the decade. The highest temperature anomalies occurred in African countries north of the Equator.
     
  • ​In North and Central America, Canada and the contiguous USA and Alaska, which together constitute by far the region’s largest land area, recorded a combined average temperature anomaly greater than +0.5°C.On its own, Canada recorded the region’s highest anomaly of +1.3°C​​.​​
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  • The period 2001–2010 was the warmest decade on record since records began around the year 1850.
     
  • ​The global average temperature above the Earth’s surface over the 10-year period is estimated to have been 14.47°C ± 0.1°C which is 0.88°C higher than the average temperature of the first decade of the 20th century (1901–1910).
     
  • ​A pronounced increase in the global temperature occurred over the four decades 1971–2010.
    ​The global temperature increased at an average estimated rate of 0.17°C per decade during that period, while the trend over the whole period 1880–2010 was only 0.062°C per decade.
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  • ​Furthermore, the increase of 0.21°C in the average decadal temperature from 1991–2000 to 2001–2010 is larger than the increase from 1981–1990 to 1991–2000 (+0.14°C) and larger than for any other two successive decades since the ​beginning of instrumental records.