IPCC Climategate scientists and alarmists claim that modern temperatures are "unprecedented." In another example of just how bogus this claim is, a new peer-reviewed study documents that eastern Finland's temperatures during the Medieval Warming were significantly warmer and extended over a 700-year span, not just a 25-year span that the modern warming represents. (click on images to enlarge)
"Working with a sediment core from Lake Pieni-Kauro in eastern Finland, Luoto and Helama identified and quantified various midge assemblages that were dominated by chironomids, after which they reconstructed a 1500-year history of mean July air temperature from the Finnish multi-lake calibration model of Luoto (2009). The results, shown in the accompanying figure, delineate a Medieval Warm Period stretching from about AD 580 to 1280, the peak temperature of which was approximately 0.3°C greater than the peak temperature at the end of the record, which concludes near the end of 2008. [Luoto, Tomi P. and Helama, Samuli 2010]
Read about other peer-reviewed studies. Additional climate history postings and charts.