Data from meteorological stations show that surface air temperatures in the 1980s are the warmest in the history of instrumental records. The four warmest years on record are all in the 1980s, with the warmest years in our analysis being 1981 and 1987. The rate of warming between the mid 1960s and the present is higher than that which occurred in the previous period of rapid warming between the 1880s and 1940. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1988