What was done
Temperature trends for 57 locations in Europe were examined over the period 1751 to 1995.

What was learned
Temperatures warmed over the entire 245-year time period by approximately 0.5°C.  A small, insignificant cooling was reported from 1751 to 1890, followed by a warming trend to 1950, cooling thereafter to the mid-1970s, followed by a warming to the end of the record.

What it means
As the authors indicate, Europe represents less than 2% of the earth's surface, and its climate history may reveal little about global climate change.  However, they note that "some climate models predict substantial warming in Europe as the greenhouse gas concentrations increase, ... but the overall observed warming rate appears to be lower than what has been predicted by numerical climate models."