With a major winter storm blasting its way across the country leaving fridge temperatures, howling winds and a lot snow, global warming may not be on the minds of a lot of people.

But theWorld Meterological Organzation  (WMO) reported Tuesday that the year 2009 is likely to rank in the top 10 warmest on record since the beginning of instrumental climate records in 1850.

According to WMO, the global combined sea surface and land surface air temperature for 2009 (January–October) is currently estimated at 0.44°C ± 0.11°C (0.79°F ± 0.20°F) above the 1961–1990 annual average of 14.00°C/57.2°F. The current nominal ranking of 2009, which does not account for uncertainties in the annual averages, places it as the fifth-warmest year. The decade of the 2000s (2000–2009) was warmer than the decade spanning the 1990s (1990–1999), which in turn was warmer than the 1980s (1980–1989).

This year above-normal temperatures were recorded in most parts of the continents, WMO reported. Only North America (United States and Canada) experienced conditions that were cooler than average. Given the current figures, large parts of southern Asia and central Africa are likely to have the warmest year on record.

Climate extremes, including devastating floods, severe droughts, snowstorms, heatwaves and cold waves, were recorded in many parts of the world, according to WMO.  This year the extreme warm events were more frequent and intense in southern South America, Australia and southern Asia, in particular. La Niña conditions shifted into a warm-phase El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in June. The Arctic sea ice extent during the melt season ranked the third lowest, after the lowest and second-lowest records set in 2007 and 2008, respectively.

Global warming is not in your backyard type of observable phenomena. Since our planet is mostly water and our oceans are a big weather maker, warming up the seas, even by a degree or two, impacts weather across the globe. 

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