Five-Year Average Global Temperature Anomalies from 1881 to 2009

Notes from our reviewers

The CLEAN collection is hand-picked and rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and classroom effectiveness. Read what our review team had to say about this resource below or learn more about how CLEAN reviews teaching materials.

• Teaching Tips
  Teacher may need to explain to students what "temperature anomaly" means. "Anomaly" is defined as the deviation of the global mean surface temperature from that for the base period. In this case the base period is the mean global temperature for 1951-1980.
• About the Science
  An authoritative and well-documented visualization of 130 years of global temperature anomalies. The link to the data used to generate these images is broken. This dataset ends in 2009. Further warming has taken place since then. Comment from expert scientist: Very good animations of global temperature through time. The data are from respected scientists, and a respected/good dataset. It would be a good idea to include Fahrenheit temperatures for younger students.
• About the Pedagogy
  Animation clearly demonstrates how temperatures have changed in the last 130 years. Associated explanation on the webpage help provide more background for both teachers and students.
• Technical Details/Ease of Use
  The animation can be downloaded in a variety of formats and resolutions. Very clear, easy to understand graphics.