“The 1997 annual state of the global climate report”

NOAA's document “The 1997 annual state of the global climate report” (link) is a very short summary of NOAA's publication, “The climate of 1997” (link). For many years, from January 1998 until at least the 25th of May 2015, “The 1997 annual state of the global climate report” claimed, without any qualifications and without a shadow of a doubt, that:-

(a) The annual global surface temperature of 1997 is 62.45°F (16.92°C).
(b) The average global surface temperature of 1997 is 0.42°C above the average global surface temperature of the thirty years from 1961 to 1990.

Therefore, the 1961 to 1990 average global surface temperature is, or should be, 16.5°C. However, between May the 25th 2015 (link) and July the 7th 2015 (link), NOAA added the following words to “The1997 annual state of the global climate report” :-

“Please note: the estimate for the baseline global temperature used in this study differed, and was warmer than, the baseline estimate (Jones et al., 1999) used currently. This report has been superseded by subsequent analyses. However, as with all climate monitoring reports, it is left online as it was written at the time.” 

"Jones et al (1999)" (link) claimed, that the 1961 to 1990 average global surface air temperature is 14°C rather than 16.5°C. From this it appears, that NOAA's estimates of global surface temperatures are estimates of global surface air temperatures, insofar as NOAA recognises, that “The 1997 annual state of the global climate report” is inconsistent with "Jones et al (1999)". After all if “The 1997 annual state of the global climate report” had merely claimed, that the average global temperature of bananas at the surface of the earth during 1961 to 1990 is 16.5°C, there would have been no conflict with "Jones et al (1999)".