GISS January global temperature down by 0.14°C from December.

The GISS V4 land/ocean temperature anomaly was 1.21°C in January, up from 1.35°C in December. This fall is similar to the 0.165°C fall reported for TempLS.

As with TempLS, January was still by a small margin the warmest January in the record - next was 1.18°C in 2016.

As usual here, I will compare the GISS and earlier TempLS plots below the jump.

January global surface TempLS down 0.165°C from December, but still warmest January in record.

The TempLS FEM anomaly (1961-90 base) was 1.062°C in January, down from 1.227°C in December. It was still he warmest January in the record, but only just ahead of 0.982°C in 2016. This is the first time since May that the month was not warmest by a long way. The NCEP/NCAR reanalysis base index fell by 0.141°C.

It was very warm in NE N America, but cold in a band from the Gulf Coast to Alaska. Cold in N Europe and far East Siberia, but a band of warmth through N Africa to central Siberia. Antarctica was cold.
Here is the temperature map, using the FEM-based map of anomalies. Use the arrows at bottom to see different 2D projections.

As always, the 3D globe map gives better detail. There are more graphs and a station map in the ongoing report which is updated daily.