Recent anomalies of mean temperature of 12 consecutive months – Germany, Europe, Northern Hemisphere

Anomalies of mean air temperature of 12 consecutive months were detected recently at a number of spatial scales: from local via national and continental, to hemispheric. At all these spatial scales, pre-2007 records were exceeded by considerable margins. The recent rise in the mean temperature of 12 consecutive months at several scales has remained largely unnoticed, because the 12-month means are seldom analyzed. Broad attention is typically focused on monthly, seasonal and annual temperatures. Analysis of shifted 12-month periods helps spot peculiar 12-month episodes with remarkable temperature anomalies that do not coincide with a calendar year. Introducing 12-month running mean temperatures into the global warming debate can prove useful.