The NOAA have said that, so far, 2010 is the hottest year on record with June 2010 being recorded as the hottest June on record worldwide. But this is not a one off appearance as March, April and May 2010 were also the warmest months on record. These records have now been collated and it is the 304thconsecutive month that a global temperature has been above the 20th century average.

The last month that recorded a below average temperature was February 1985.

There are some non-believers of global warming and who have publicly said that it is a political game or a scape goat for other global issues. They have commented that the second half of 2010 will be cooler and that the evidence of global warming is still cloudy. But are these factually, recorded numbers not proof that there is something warming the earth, making these months warmer than we have previously experienced?

In among the high-rising temperatures registered there have been some regions, however, that did record cooler temperatures. Spain recorded its coolest June temperature since 1997 and a town in Southern China recording is coolest June since recordings started there in 1951.

The cooler temperatures do add to the fuel that there is no such thing as global warming but just that we are having a good ’summer’. But this pattern of heating is worldwide. Arctic ice is known for expanding over the winter months and reducing over the summer, but this June showed that the sea ice was declining faster than in previous June months.

It just goes to show that the planet, according to the numbers, on a whole is warmer.

Whilst organisers resort to desperate measures, trucking in tonnes of snow and straw to pack-out the slopes, there are already whispers as to whether the freak change in the weather is pointing to something more serious that a disruption to the ski season.

The very real jeopardy of a favoured recreational activity it seems is enough to bring Climate Change to the forefront of people’s minds. It is frustrating, that after all the dire warnings and devastating climatic events already taking place around the world; raising sea levels, tidal waves, flooding etc… it takes a treat to our right to strap flat objects to our feet and slide downhill in cold weather, to really put the frighteners on us. But if it works and prompts any kind of positive action, then who are we to question to motives behind it?

Each December and January the Met Office issues a forecast of the global surface temperature for the coming year. It takes into account contributing factors such as increasing gas concentrations, the cooling influences of industrial particles, solar effects, volcanic changes and natural variations of the oceans.

Obviously, this forecast is open to change, but within the last 10 years the Met Office predictions have only had a 0.06c margin of error.