In , Master Betty wrote in part:

I also don't put too much faith in this
"Hottest in Recorded History" since the record keeping has always been
spotty at best. There is also the issue of the accuracy of our
current temperature guaging stations which have been found to NOT
conform to standards for placement and maintenance. Seems that a lot
of the standard temperature stations are setup in or near parking lots
and external heat sources that call their readings into question.

2/3 of the world's surface is ocean, where that is not a problem, and
there are measurements for that considered in the three major surface
indices of global temperature trends.

Sea surface alone, by Hadley Cent

http://hadobs.metoffice.com/hadsst2/.../global/nh+sh/

Whole world, same source:

http://hadobs.metoffice.com/hadcrut3.../global/nh+sh/

Since ocean mass causes lag in temperature change, especially in
longer-term effects as opposed to year/decade/multidecade scale effects
*caused* by oceanic oscillations and random variations in current flows,
it appears to me understandable how the recent warming trend affected
ocean less than land.

- Don Klipstein )