Accurate measurements of surface radiative temperature, i.e. skin temperature, would be more directly interpretable in terms of the surface response to increase of greenhouse gases than the more conventional screen temperatures. Such measurements have not previously been attempted because of the difficulties of converting existing observations into a meaningful measurement. We have developed procedures for removing the effects of changing satellite orbits and cloud contamination from skin temperatures estimated from AVHRR channels 4 and 5, and so provide a first estimate of the trends of land surface skin temperature over the last two decades. The estimated land temperature increase is not only much greater than that for the atmosphere but also apparently somewhat larger than the estimates of surface air temperature increase from in situ measurement.