Medieval Warm Period was hotter than today

Focusing on the Medieval Warm Period, which most people generally define as the period of time between AD 800 and 1300, it is evident that temperatures were as much as 1.4°C warmer than what they were over the most recent decade or so. And that is the key point. Irrespective of whether or not a "consistent temperature peak" was observed during this period, temperatures of the most recent decade or so in Northern Fennoscandia have not been higher than they were back in medieval times. In fact, they were exceeded for most of the entire two thousand-year record. If there is anything unusual about temperatures of the most recent decades, therefore, it is that they are unusually cold!

Figure 1. Reconstructed temperature history of Northern Fennoscandia. Adapted from Bjune et al. (2009).Read more.