| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| Worldwide Winter Warmest |
| 2007-03-16 |
| I find the wide variety of conflicting evidence interesting. WASHINGTON - This winter was the warmest on record worldwide, the government said Thursday in the latest worrisome report focusing on changing climate. The report comes just over a month after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said global warming is very likely caused by human actions and is so severe it will continue for centuries. Wasn't the summary written by politician, not scientists? The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the combined land and ocean temperatures for December through February were 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit above average for the period since record keeping began in 1880. The report said that during the past century, global temperatures have increased at about 0.11 degrees per decade. But that increase has been three times larger since 1976, NOAA's National Climatic Data Center reported. Most scientists Also contributing to this winter's record warmth was an El Nino, a periodic warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean. It was particularly strong in January — the warmest January ever — but the ocean surface has since begun to cool. The report noted that in the Northern Hemisphere the combined land and water temperature was the warmest ever at 1.64 degrees above average. In the Southern Hemisphere, where it was summer, the temperature was 0.88 degree above average and the fourth warmest. For the United States, meanwhile, the winter temperature was near average. The season got off to a late start and spring-like temperatures covered most of the eastern half of the country in January, but cold conditions set in in February, which was the third coldest on record. For winter, statewide temperatures were warmer than average from Florida to Maine and from Michigan to Montana while cooler-than-average temperatures occurred in the southern Plains and areas of the Southwest. It's that darn unpredictability of the theory again! For Alaska, both February and winter were warmer than average but far from the record warmth of 2003 and 2001, respectively. |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #10 RACE TO THE LEFT, OWG-SWO + SURRENDER > Back to the future of the 1970's when major US firms unionized and employee-benefitted themselves out of competition = jobs, SAVE THIS TIME JIMMY HOFFA + TEFLON DON, etal. WILL BE BAREFOOT AND WEAR FLOWER-IN-THEIR-HAIR TOGAS ON TV??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-03-16 23:56 |
| #9 Of course warmer winters in Siberia, Greenland and northern Canada aren't really something most people would consider an urgent issue. Heh, heh. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2007-03-16 19:34 |
| #8 The media narrative is a mess but the fact of the matter is that at the surface in the very high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, this winter was anomalously warm. Warm surface winters in the high lattitudes is what would be expected as CO2 in the atmosphere reduces the capacity of the lower atmosphere to radiate heat into the stratosphere (which by the way means that in a greenhouse world the stratosphere will cool). Of course warmer winters in Siberia, Greenland and northern Canada aren't really something most people would consider an urgent issue. |
| Posted by: mhw 2007-03-16 16:39 |
| #7 Just liberal MSM spin. Warm in Europe, average in Asia, cold as hell in the US and southern hemisphere. But we are doomed to global warming. Really. Freakin' asshats. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2007-03-16 10:36 |
| #6 ...has been an average... If you got your head in the frig and your ass in the stove, on the average, you're comfortable. :) |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2007-03-16 09:26 |
| #5 ...in the latest worrisome report focusing on changing climate. Yeah, if it wasn't "worrisome", do ya think we'd be hearing about it? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-03-16 09:21 |
| #4 ..Even NBC's 'Today' show said this morning that this winter has been an average one in terms of temperature and precipitation... Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2007-03-16 09:10 |
| #3 I just read the NOAA report this morning. Not one category listed 2007 as the warmest on record. I don't see how they are reading this thing to get that out of it. Maybe I wasn't holding my tongue right. It looks to me like 1998 was the warmest year on record??? But I'm not a government paid "climatologist" either. These guys cant even predict the weather for tomorrow with any degree of accuracy, what makes them think they can talk about the weather 50 years from now. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2007-03-16 08:17 |
| #2 Oh crap we're doomed ??? |
| Posted by: ARMYGUY 2007-03-16 07:46 |
| #1 The last three months were by far the warmest winter I have even seen....Oh, hang on, it was summer in oz. My bad. |
| Posted by: Bunyip 2007-03-16 07:33 |