The BBC has confirmed the release of what appears to be a subsection of the HADCRUT dataset. The party line is duly related to the masses:
The first decade of this century is "by far" the warmest since instrumental records began, say the UK Met Office and World Meteorological Organization.
Their analyses also show that 2009 will almost certainly be the fifth warmest in the 160-year record.
Reiner Grundmann, writing at Die Klimazwiebel notes the timing and describes it as a political statement. Civil service and the Voice of the Bureaucracy make political statement. Who would have thought it?
Meanwhile, analysis is underway. John Graham-Cumming (got the hyphenation right this time) has already uncovered some funnies in the data.
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