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It's interesting how the record in the US was shattered, but it's
actually quite a non-event globally speaking (relative to the last
few years, anyway) when you take into account the land and ocean
temperatures.<br>
<br>
Some info on the global combined land + ocean temperatures:<br>
<br>
The State of the Climate global analysis page from the NOAA:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/2012/11">http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/2012/11</a><br>
<br>
It states under global highlights that as of November 2012
(December isn't out yet) that <br>
"The combined global land and ocean average surface temperature
for January–November 2012 was the eighth warmest such period on
record, at 0.59°C (1.06°F) above the 20th century average." <br>
<br>
I don't how the numbers will change once the December data is in,
but we should know in a few days.<br>
<br>
Here is a graph of the land/ocean combined temperature data since
1880: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/Fig.A2.lrg.gif">http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/Fig.A2.lrg.gif</a><br>
<br>
We're currently heading down, temperature-wise. You'll notice on
the graph that a short-term trend rarely continues for more than
four years or so, and that two and three year stretches are not
uncommon. I'm guessing next years temperature will be higher than
this years, but that's only based on the see-saw structure of the
graph and the fact that we are coming out of a La Nina. Anyway,
we all know that I'm not a licensed climatologist and that 97 out
of 100 climatologists think I'm a "poo-poo head".<br>
<br>
Paul<br>
<br>
On 01/09/2013 03:40 AM, Art Deco wrote:<br>
<br>
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<div class=""> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/"><img moz-do-not-send="true"
src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/misc/nytlogo153x23.gif"
alt="The New York Times" border="0" hspace="0"
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<div class="">January 8, 2013</div>
<h1>Not Even Close: 2012 Was Hottest Ever in U.S.</h1>
<h6 class="">By <span>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/justin_gillis/index.html"
rel="author" title="More Articles by JUSTIN GILLIS"><span>JUSTIN
GILLIS</span></a></span></h6>
<div id="articleBody">
<p>
The <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/">numbers</a> are in:
2012, the year of a surreal March heat wave, a severe
drought in the Corn Belt and a huge storm that caused broad
devastation in the Middle Atlantic States, turns out to have
been the hottest year ever recorded in the contiguous United
States. </p>
<p>
How hot was it? The temperature differences between years
are usually measured in fractions of a degree, but last
year’s 55.3 degree average demolished the previous record,
set in 1998, by a full degree Fahrenheit. </p>
<p>
If that does not sound sufficiently impressive, consider
that 34,008 daily high records were set at weather stations
across the country, compared with only 6,664 record lows,
according to a count maintained by the <a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.weather.com/">Weather
Channel </a>meteorologist Guy Walton, using federal
temperature records. </p>
<p>
That ratio, which was roughly in balance as recently as the
1970s, has been out of whack for decades as the country has
warmed, but never by as much as it was last year. </p>
<p>
“The heat was remarkable,” said Jake Crouch, a scientist
with the <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/">National Climatic Data
Center</a> in Asheville, N.C., which released the official
climate compilation on Tuesday. “It was prolonged. That we
beat the record by one degree is quite a big deal.” </p>
<p>
Scientists said that natural variability almost certainly
played a role in last year’s extreme heat and drought. But
many of them expressed doubt that such a striking new record
would have been set without the backdrop of <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/series/temperaturerising/index.html">global
warming</a> caused by the human release of greenhouse
gases. And they warned that 2012 was probably a foretaste of
things to come, as continuing warming makes heat extremes
more likely. </p>
<p>
Even so, the last year’s record for the United States is not
expected to translate into a global temperature record when
figures are released in the coming weeks. The year featured
a <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.elnino.noaa.gov/lanina.html">La Niña</a>
weather pattern, which tends to cool the global climate over
all, and scientists expect it to be the world’s eighth- or
ninth-warmest year on record. </p>
<p>
Assuming that prediction holds up, it will mean that the 10
warmest years on record all fell within the past 15 years, a
measure of how much the planet has warmed. Nobody who is
under 28 has lived through a month of global temperatures
that fell below the 20th-century average, because the last
such month was February 1985. </p>
<p>
Last year’s weather in the United States began with an
unusually warm winter, with relatively little snow across
much of the country, followed by a March that was so hot
that trees burst into bloom and swimming pools opened early.
The soil dried out in the March heat, helping to set the
stage for a drought that peaked during the warmest July on
record. </p>
<p>
The drought engulfed 61 percent of the nation, killed corn
and soybean crops and sent prices spiraling. It was
comparable to a severe drought in the 1950s, Mr. Crouch
said, but <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.elnino.noaa.gov/lanina.html">not quite as
severe as the legendary Dust Bowl</a> drought of the
1930s, which was exacerbated by poor farming practices that
allowed topsoil to blow away. </p>
<p>
Extensive records covering the lower 48 states go back to
1895; Alaska and Hawaii have shorter records and are
generally not included in long-term climate comparisons for
that reason. </p>
<p>
Mr. Crouch pointed out that until last year, the coldest
year in the historical record for the lower 48 states, 1917,
was separated from the warmest year, 1998, by only 4.2
degrees Fahrenheit. That is why the 2012 record, and its one
degree increase over 1998, strikes climatologists as so
unusual. </p>
<p>
“We’re taking quite a large step above what the period of
record has shown for the contiguous United States,” Mr.
Crouch said. </p>
<p>
In addition to being the nation’s warmest year, 2012 turned
out to be the second-worst on a measure called the <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/extremes/cei/">Climate
Extremes Index</a>, surpassed only by 1998. </p>
<p>
Experts are still counting, but so far 11 disasters in 2012
have exceeded a threshold of $1 billion in damages,
including several tornado outbreaks; Hurricane Isaac, which
hit the Gulf Coast in August, and, late in the year, <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/h/hurricanes_and_tropical_storms/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier"
title="More articles about Hurricane Sandy." class="">Hurricane
Sandy</a>, which caused damage likely to exceed $60
billion in nearly half the states, primarily in the
mid-Atlantic region. </p>
<p>
Among those big disasters was one bearing a label many
people had never heard before: the <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.erh.noaa.gov/lwx/events/svrwx_20120629/">derecho</a>,
a line of severe, fast-moving thunderstorms that struck
central and eastern parts of the country starting on June
29, killing more than 20 people, toppling trees and knocking
out power for millions of households. </p>
<p>
For people who escaped both the derecho and Hurricane Sandy
relatively unscathed, the year may be remembered most for
the sheer breadth and oppressiveness of the summer heat
wave. By the calculations of the climatic data center, a
third of the nation’s population experienced 10 or more days
of summer temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit. </p>
<p>
Among the cities that set temperature records in 2012 were
Nashville; Athens, Ga.; and Cairo, Ill., all of which hit
109 degrees on June 29; Greenville, S.C., which hit 107
degrees on July 1; and Lamar, Colo., which hit 112 degrees
on June 27. </p>
<p>
With the end of the growing season, coverage of the drought
has waned, but the drought itself has not. Mr. Crouch
pointed out that at the beginning of January, 61 percent of
the country was still in moderate to severe drought
conditions. “I foresee that it’s going to be a big story
moving forward in 2013,” he said. </p>
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-- <br>
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