Global warming: has the rise in temperatures 'paused'? {live}

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2013/jan/09/global-warming-met-office-paused?intcmp=122

12.47pm GMT
On the same day that the Met Office confirmed it had adjusted its forecast, the National Climatic Data Center in the US confirmed that 2012 had been the hottest year on record across the 48 contiguous states - a full degree Fahrenheit hotter than the 1998 record.

Here's Suzanne Goldenberg's news story for the Guardian.

And here's a state-by-state map showing the temperature records in more detail.

12.41pm GMT
An interesting update has just been added to Roz Pidcock's post at Carbon Brief:

A sentence in the Met Office's revised global temperature forecast reads "The warmest year in the 160-year Met Office Hadley Centre global temperature record in 1998, with a temperature of 0.40°C above long-term average". This was quoted by several newspapers.

[Nederland]

1. A simple question

Is it appropriate to look at temperature records for only the lower 48 states of the US when trying to decide if Global Warming has paused?