2010: It was a very warm year worldwide

Despite the strong La Nina cooling over millions of miles of the equatorial Pacific, 2010 finished in a statistical dead heat for the warmest in the 32 years for which satellite data is available, according to the keepers of the data.

It was mere .02 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than the reigning champ, 1998, but that difference isn't worth quibbling over, University of Alabama and NASA scientist John Christy said in releasing the numbers this afternoon.

Both 2010 and 1998 were characterized by strong winter-time El Nino warmings in the equatorial Pacific, which helped pump up the global temperatures.Later in both those years, the Pacific conditions flipped to La Nina.

In the satellite record, nine of the 10 warmest years have occurred since 2001. The lone exception, of course, would be 1998.