Globe cools slightly in December 2010: 11th - 17th warmest on record
December 2010 was the globe's 17th warmest December on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies rated December 2010 the 11th warmest December on record. December 2010 global ocean temperatures were the 10th warmest on record, and land temperatures were the 30th warmest on record. Global satellite-measured temperatures for the lowest 8 km of the atmosphere were the 7th warmest on record, according to both Remote Sensing Systems and the University of Alabama Huntsville (UAH). The global cool-down from November, which was the warmest November on record for the globe, was due in large part to the on-going moderate strength La Niña episode in the Eastern Pacific. The large amount of cold water that upwells to the surface during a La Niña typically causes a substantial cool-down in global temperatures. Still, December 2010 temperatures were warm enough to make 2010 tied with 2005 as Earth's warmest year in history, as I reported in yesterday's post.
For those interested, NCDC has a page of notable weather highlights from December 2010.
Figure 1. Departure of temperature from average for December 2010. Eastern Canada and Greenland were very warm, relative to average, and much of Siberia and Europe were abnormally cold. Image credit: National Climatic Data Center (NCDC).
An average December for the U.S.
For the contiguous U.S., December was near-average in temperature, ranking as the 44th coldest December in the 116-year record, according to the National Climatic Data Center. The year 2010 was the 23rd warmest on record. A strong "Arctic Oscillation" pattern allowed cold air to spill southward over the Southeast U.S., resulting in the coldest December on record in Florida and Georgia. Nine other states in the Southeast U.S. had top-ten coldest Decembers. Five states in the Southwest U.S. had top-ten warmest Decembers. A series of major snowstorms brought the 7th-largest December snow cover to the U.S. as a whole. December 2010 precipitation in the contiguous U.S. was also near average, ranking 54th driest in the 116-year record. Montana and Utah had their wettest Decembers on record, and six other states had top-ten wettest Decembers--Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oregon, Maine, and California. Six states had top-ten driest Decembers--Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, and Delaware.
La Niña in the "moderate" to "strong" category
The equatorial Eastern Pacific Ocean is currently experiencing moderate to strong La Niña conditions. Sea surface temperatures (SSTs) over the tropical Eastern Pacific in the area 5°N - 5°S, 120°W - 170°W, also called the "Niña 3.4 region", were 1.5°C below average as of January 10, according to NOAA. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology put this number at 1.45°C below average (as of January 9.) Moderate La Niña conditions are defined as occurring when this number is 1.0°C - 1.5°C below average. Temperatures colder than 1.5°C below average qualify as strong La Niña conditions. NOAA is maintaining its La Niña advisory, and expects La Niña conditions to last through through spring.
Both El Niño and La Niña events have major impacts on regional and global weather patterns. La Niña typically causes warm, dry winters over the southern portion of the U.S., with cooler and wetter than average conditions over the Pacific Northwest. The Ohio and Mississippi Valleys states typically have wetter winters than usual during La Niña events.
December 2010 Arctic sea ice extent lowest on record
Northern Hemisphere sea ice extent in December 2010 was the lowest in the 31-year satellite record, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Ice volume in December was also the lowest on record for this time of year, according to University of Washington Polar Ice Center. At the end of December, the eastern portion of Canada's Hudson Bay remained unfrozen, the first time in recorded history that Hudson Bay has not been completely frozen over at the end of the year. The unusual amount of open water led to temperatures that averaged 20°C (36°F) above normal over a region larger than Texas during the first ten days of January.
Jeff Masters
Reader Comments
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Ah. It looks a bit like the ice caves in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore on the Bayfield Peninsula. Thanks for the photo of the UP, RIDGES!
Timing is everything. :)
Now a Swiss company, Meteo Systems, is poised to earn a pretty penny in Abu Dhabi with a controversial weather modification system said to be responsible for dozens of rain showers in the desert last summer.
No doubt about that.
But where?
And how much?
Hypothetical questions, because we cannot know the answers as yet.
But I think that we all accept that Climate is changing, and the Drivers are so far, unknown.
Just trying to get off the AGW thing for a while, and looking for some thoughts on the options we may have.
Rainfall rates in SE TX has changed almost little in the last 100 years.
High Cirrus clouds (ice) lets most of the IR through---if it is completely saturated down the lowest levels then yes it will warm up. But if it is just moist on top (ice), most of the IR should pass through.
Then why haven't we warmed up 2-3C this century? We have only warmed up 1-1.2C.
No this graph is supposed to show how high CO2 levels have gotten on this planet. Much higher than they are now.
Does this look like a graph that will warm up 12-15F this century?
Annual rates here (Trinidad 11n 61w) have changed little as well.
Patterns have changed recently though (last 10 years).
Rainfall tends to be of shorter duration, with heavier showers.
Temps have gone from mean 27c 30 years ago, to mean 29c now.
Noticeable temp increases in periods of Sahara dust events, which only started to affect here about 40 years ago.
30 years is not long enough to satisfy the "long term" requirement, but interesting anyway.
"Just move 5N and you will get acclimated."
Eureka! You've solved the entire problem with one swift stroke of the sword! Worst case scenario, all we have to do to deal with climate change is move 50 or 60 million Americans north, along with their cities (Miami, New Orleans, New York) and homes and businesses and schools? That's it? Why, that won't cost more than, what, $1,000 trillion or so? Maybe $3,000 trillion, tops? Of course, Canada might not be too happy with us overrunning their border for cooler climes, but we'll be so busy dealing with the 30 million Mexicans fleeing their own country into ours that we won't even notice. And the agricultural areas in Florida and elsewhere will be underwater, while the Midwest's growing areas are affected by persistent drought...but we'll be able to grow oranges in Missouri and Nebraska, so that'll work out.
(Of course, the citizens of places such as Mumbai, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Ho Chi Minh City, Calcutta, Osaka, and Alexandria will have to move, too.,,but the world shouldn't have a problem moving and sheltering a couple of billion people or so.)
It's amazing nobody ever thought of this before!
:-\
Well don't get into the "graph" business and display only what looks like what we want to see. It would be wise to include the 2009-2010 temperature spike that recently occurred and that we are currently dropping off from. This spike certainly seems to reinforce the overall upward trend over the last 30 years, but with the current fall-off, the overall trend since 2002 will likely remain essentially flat.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich honors Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on wrong date, St. Patrick's Day
If you posted it, I would be surprised if it did. That caveat out of the way, I assume the source is not someone's photobucket account. You must come clean.
New Alabama Governor: Only Christians Are My Brothers And Sisters
Read up about 10 posts above mine and you will see it.
Yeah, so you reposted something without knowing the source? How do you know if what you reposted is what it pretends to be?
here are loads of Weather information secured by NOAA as part of their Data Rescue program.
For Trinidad, going back to 1860 in some cases.
No. That's actually a pretty terrible graph. You also can't compare climate from 100's of millions of years ago to climate of today without taking into consideration items such as solar irradiance, land mass/water locations and area, volcanic activity, and atmospheric composition. To get an accurate comparison you'd have to adjust the data so that you're comparing apples to apples, not apples to oranges. The web actually has some decent starting info on paleoclimate, and there a some good books out there on the topic.
For a more accurate comparison, you may want to look at relatively recent paleoclimate history, such as the Vostok ice cores that go back about 400K years. You can even go to wikipedia where they have some decent graphs showing CO2/temperature (which shows a strong correlation). There are many papers based on ice core data that go into a lot of detail on the subject.
Seriously JFlorida, if you don't approve of it, ignore it. Someone else may be interested in it.
It was not originally posted by me and thus is not my responsibility. I was simply asking a question, and reposted the image for reference. I personally find the entire idea of graphing temperature and CO2 back millions of years to be hilarious.
Interesting data.... I was Going through it, and found out that you can find the same data for many other countries
Link
Tokyo, Jan 17 – Heavy snowfall blanketed many parts of Japan Monday, disrupting transportation and prompting Toyota Motor Corp to suspend operations at 12 of its factories.
More than 100 cm of snow fell in some areas along the Sea of Japan, disrupting rail and highway travel in central Japan.
The fresh snowfall pushed snow accumulation to 195 cm in Kitahiroshima in Hiroshima prefecture, 137 cm in Maniwa in Okayama prefecture and 91 cm in Onan in Shimane prefecture, all record highs for the locations in western Japan, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
Nagoya, a major central city, also saw more than 10 cm of snow pile up for the first time in three years, the agency said.
Toyota decided to halt work at its 12 factories around the city because the snow could block smooth procurement of parts and make employees’ commutes difficult. The carmaker said it was to resume operations Tuesday.
Central Japan Railway Co said services on the Tokaido Shinkansen Line were delayed as bullet trains slowed because of snowfall between Hamamatsu and Shin-Osaka Station. A total of 75 trains ran up to two hours behind schedule, affecting about 67,000 people, the Kyodo News agency reported, citing the company.
The Tomei Expressway was also closed between Shizuoka and Toyota in Aichi prefecture earlier in the day, Kyodo said.
The agency said the weather system was expected to keep hovering around the country Monday but to gradually recede through Tuesday
http://www.indiatalkies.com/2011/01/heavy-snow-hits-japan-toyota-stops-production.html
Korea scrambles to cut electricity use
Consumption soars to record amid deep chill, fueling power shortage concerns
The government is introducing a series of contingency measures to cut power consumption as the cold spell drives up electricity demand to record levels.
With the cold snap gripping the nation, even in the warmer southern regions, electricity demand has shot up, setting new records three times already this month.
On Monday, the country’s electricity demand shot up to greater than 7.3 million kilowatt hours, breaking the previous record set on Jan. 10, which was about 400,000 kilowatt higher than the record of Jan 7.
With the rise in consumption, Korea’s generating capacity is being pushed to its limits, fueling concerns of a power shortage.
On Monday, the country’s reserve capacity was pushed down to 5.5 percent, far short of the 10 percent line considered to provide a sufficient buffer for times of high demand such as the summer and winter months.
http://www.koreaherald.com/business/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20110118000729
Last month was the coldest December documented for the UK since nationwide records began 100 years ago, the Met Office has confirmed.
For central England, it was the second coldest December since 1659.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12119329
Hmm?
What better and more relevant material than a debate between two prominent scientists who are experts in the field? Although that particular exchange was more of a school boy squabble, I would love to see more of that kind of communication between scientists of opposing opinions made public. That really stimulates thinking and new ideas.
Once again, these are weather events. Not especially surprising weather events in a La Nina year with an odd arctic weather pattern. As an example to counter yours, it was warmer in Greenland than a good chunk of the continental US, and some areas of the arctic were 20 F above normal.
Weather != climate. Cold snaps and heat waves, floods and droughts, active vs. inactive hurricane seasons are primarily weather events. Climate is long term usually starting off at decades and moving up.
Japan having a record snowfall for a year isn't all that interesting from a climatological standpoint. If it happens for 10 consecutive years, along with colder temps across region, then you've got something.
Looks like the entire Planet is becoming an Ice Cube.
We are all DOOM !
Yeah. I only came across that site recently.
Good stuff there.
I also looked for graphs but found none in the free stuff. At least with the Dessler paper I could find the graph... with the correlation coefficient of 0.02.
Dessler paper
Show me. At least I can make my mind up with the linked paper... big error bars.
I don't know...
Now that is a lot of data. Even have a folder of hurricanes. :)
In Houston there is a billboard along 610 saying "my rum can beat up your rum..."
Sort of like what this blog has turned into...
Amazing. Simply amazing.
I asked about Mann et al (2008), and you jump back with a comment about Mann et al (1998).
If you had bothered to read the post I referenced, you would have seen what article I was referencing.
Problem with circles, is that they have no end.....
Oh, Wait!
Maybe that can be disputed too....
LOL, how you doing WPB?
now up to 77%
So tell us, does CO2 and Temp have a linear or logarithmic relationship ? Anyone? ?
Doing good. Hope you are well also. This limbo period before Hurricane season is quite dicey.
The 2005 map used a 1961-1990 base, while the 2010 map uses a 1971-2000 base. The latter incorporates a hotter decade, so it takes correspondingly higher temps for any particular anomaly to appear in red. IOW, a temp shown in blue in 2010 might have been red had the 2005 base been used.
Latest on Mann work; peer reviewed
It is now the green check instead of the hockey stick.
It is getting warmer (no room for denial of this in the data) but wide error bars.
True!
But I am enjoying the fantastic weather here. Typical "onset of the dryseason" stuff.
Generally clear skies, easterly winds at 18 mph or so, high 80's temp with low humidity, occasional brief shower to keep things green....
Real nice.
Did it also use 1200 km smoothing?
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