2nd coldest January globally in 15 years

[Extremeweatherguy]

Here are a few links carrying the story...

http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/20 ... -15-years/
http://cjunk.blogspot.com/2008/02/colde ... years.html

...Very interesting.

[jinftl]

Interesting, but December 2007 was the 13th warmest globally in 128 years...overall, 2007 was the 5th warmest globally since the year 1880!

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2007/dec/dec07.html

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

Big deal, most data up intill 30 years ago globally was about as worth while as spiting in a can for most of the world. This is huge, this drop with China having its coldest winter in over a hundred years. Many parts of the world are setting huge cold record...We will see just how cold this year go's, because if it go's north of 10th warmest its over for the global warmers.

[HURAKAN]

If anyone is trying to make a point against Global Warming, you're doing quite the opposite. One of the effects of Global Warming will be more dramatic weather events. More rain in some parts, more dry conditions in others, more intense heat waves in some places, very cold snaps in others, and more. I think people hear "Global Warming" and are thinking that the weather will always be warm. Seasons will continue, no one says that will stop, and therefore, you should also expect harsh winters in parts of the world.

On the other hand, it could be just a normal event that is not related to Global Warming. You can't just look at one fact and say "Global Warming" or "Global Warming is dead."

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

If anyone is trying to make a point against Global Warming, you're doing quite the opposite. One of the effects of Global Warming will be more dramatic weather events. More rain in some parts, more dry conditions in others, more intense heat waves in some places, very cold snaps in others, and more. I think people hear "Global Warming" and are thinking that the weather will always be warm. Seasons will continue, no one says that will stop, and therefore, you should also expect harsh winters in parts of the world.

On the other hand, it could be just a normal event that is not related to Global Warming. You can't just look at one fact and say "Global Warming" or "Global Warming is dead."

I would expect with the warming of the poles at 3 times the rate of the equator, that storms would be growing alot weaker. Weaker temperature enbalance from the equator to the poles. Is that true?

[Ed Mahmoud]

If anyone is trying to make a point against Global Warming, you're doing quite the opposite. One of the effects of Global Warming will be more dramatic weather events. More rain in some parts, more dry conditions in others, more intense heat waves in some places, very cold snaps in others, and more. I think people hear "Global Warming" and are thinking that the weather will always be warm. Seasons will continue, no one says that will stop, and therefore, you should also expect harsh winters in parts of the world.

On the other hand, it could be just a normal event that is not related to Global Warming. You can't just look at one fact and say "Global Warming" or "Global Warming is dead."

So, no matter what the weather does, it'll prove global warming?



Although, from what I can tell, the actual debate is whether the warming cycle we're in now is completely natural, completely man made, or some mix of the two. I personally have no idea what it is, but I am concerned that concern about global warming is being used as a weapon to damage the economies of the West by people who know that most people won't openly accept Marxism.

I recall way back in the early 1990s, that Rush Limbaugh (yes, I know he is a bit of a blowhard and a pill popper, but this was before he was a junkie) said that with the fall of the Soviet Union, and the final discrediting of Marxism, that people who would want to advance the goals of Marxism would know nobody would buy what they were selling openly, but would adopt environmentalism, (watermelons, he called them, green on the outside, red on the inside) to promote the goals of Marxism in a form few people would object to. Everyone loves nature, and penguins, and polar bears, and clean water.

If people really are concerned about greenhouse emissions from automobiles, they should embrace nuclear power, which could generate the electricity used to charge automotive batteries and convert water to hydrogen, which could be used to power automotive fuel cells. The more nuclear plants, the fewer coal power plants. In the meantime, natural gas has the lowest carbon footprint of all the hydrocarbons.

I hope this wasn't too political for Storm2K. I sort of hate mentioning Limbaugh. I think he is very bright, but I have listened to him enough in the past to know he talks down to his audience, and isn't scientific. (Like his attempts to 'disprove' global warming, by having people call in with what year the record high was set in their city for that day, and when it was 1927 or 1955 or whatever, acting like that was proof).


Frost on my windshield in Houston again this morning. But it was 80ºF on Tuesday, so I can't complain too much. But I'm starting to suspect 2007-2008 will be a winter-precip free one in SE Texas. Of course, someone in Minnesota who gets snow every year can't appreciate it like those of us who see it once a decade or so.

[Ed Mahmoud]

I will say, one cold month does not seem to invalidate what does seem to be a trend of recent warming.




Of course, it could be part of a natural cycle (or maybe it isn't).

[Extremeweatherguy]

I will say, one cold month does not seem to invalidate what does seem to be a trend of recent warming.




Of course, it could be part of a natural cycle (or maybe it isn't).

True, but over the last few years I would argue that the graph shows little in the way of warming at all. The global temperature average between the ups and downs over the last 50 months seems to be pretty stable, IMO. It doesn't look like a trend upwards or downwards over the last 4 years or so based on the first graph.

[Ed Mahmoud]

I will say, one cold month does not seem to invalidate what does seem to be a trend of recent warming.




Of course, it could be part of a natural cycle (or maybe it isn't).

True, but over the last few years I would argue that the graph shows little in the way of warming at all. The global temperature average between the ups and downs over the last 50 months seems to be pretty stable, IMO. It doesn't look like a trend upwards or downwards over the last 4 years or so based on the first graph.

Maybe, but it is too soon to tell. I did hear somewhere that the Arctic ice cap, which has been shrinking, has grown a the last few months.

[x-y-no]

Can anyone say "La Niña?"

[Ed Mahmoud]

Can anyone say "La Niña?"

I can say one month doesn't prove anything at all, one way or the other.

[xironman]

Where did the temperature graph for the past 10000 years come from? It is not like the ones I normally see in the literature.

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

Where did the temperature graph for the past 10000 years come from? It is not like the ones I normally see in the literature.

That is the temperature over the last 10,000 years, it clearly shows many warm and cool events. The warmest and longest lasting period was 5,000-6,000 years ago, not today. That was the core of our innerglaciers that we are now in.

[Cookiely]

I thought this was an interesting article.
http://ibdeditorial.com/IBDArticles.asp ... 9412587175

[xironman]

Thanks Matt,

I was looking for the citation so that I could look at what the underlying data set it was based on. A graph without a citation is difficult to understand, since you don't know its source. Maybe it is the scale of the graph leaves out recent warming, which would not really tell where we are now. I am used to reconstructions such as http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:2000_Year_Temperature_Comparison.png, which clearly shows where we are now (as of 2004) compared to the Medieval Warming Period. I usually look at http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/recons.html for paleo reconstructions.

[Crostorm]

Here is another article

Jan08 Northern Hemisphere snow cover: largest anomaly since 1966
http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/20 ... ince-1966/

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

Here is another article

Jan08 Northern Hemisphere snow cover: largest anomaly since 1966
http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/20 ... ince-1966/

Their was a scienstis that had a theory that when the Arctic ocean became ice free, a start of a new ice age would follow. He believed that once the ocean was open, you would have more moisture to make more snow. In so here we go if "he" knew what he was talking about. I forgot his name, but he was big in his day.

[KWT]

Clearly the strong La Nina is to blame for the lower temps in Jan...I'll be more interested to see what happens if a strong El Nino comes along I'm willing to bet record breakingly above average months would come along...