It's a lock, unless December plunges

With the November 2014 global temperature now recorded, it appears that even though November was a wee bit cooler than a record, as had been set for the past several months, that we are very close to being set for a new record warm calendar year, globally. 

This is big news - so much so that the skeptical crowd is retreating to its bastions of false certitude, which is where they feel comfortably ensconced to argue against reality.  They will argue that the surface temperature record is not as reliable as the satellite temperature record and therefore the satellite temp record (which is not setting records) should be consulted over the surface record. Unfortunately the oft-cited satellite temp record is not measuring the same thing as the surface record.  So they will argue that the surface record is "biased" or "contaminated" or "poorly situated" or some such, all the while ignoring or forgetting about the numerous phenological indicators that the world is getting warmer.  They will blame it on El Nino, forgetting or overlooking that the small El Nino now is pushing world ocean temps higher than the monster El Nino of '97-'98. 

Well, we shall ignore the ignoranti, and just look at what NOAA and Climate Central are saying:

Global Summary Information - November 2014

2014 on pace for hottest year

So, a "normal" warm December will definitely lock us in to a record warm year.  Which is good news for the argument but bad news for the planet.