The period from January 2010 to October 2010 was the warmest Jan-Oct period on record globally, according to NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). Records go back to 1880.
The global land-sea temperature anomaly for Jan-Oct 2010 was +.65 C. In second place was Jan-Oct 2005 with +.62 C, while Jan-Oct 1998 came in with +.59 C.
-------
Speaking of October, last month was the third warmest October globally (land/sea combined) with a temperature anomaly of +.62 C, according to GISS. September 2010's anomaly was +.54 C. The map below shows the temperature anomalies for October 2010. Note how warm compared to normal the far northern latitudes were. Significant cooling continued over the eastern and equatorial Pacific region. Image courtesy of GISS.
Below is an updated graph of global temperature anomaly trends from NASA GISS going back to 1996.