First off, I don't "believe in" anthropogenic global warming -- it's not a religion -- and I've become very cautious in using the phrase "believe in" because it's been deliberately co-opted by the right wing and thus has been used out of context way, way too much.
That said, I do believe that scientific theories regarding AGW are reasonably supported by a wide range of scientifically-accumulated data.
Here's a couple random data points that have just popped up.
First, just repeat the mantra:
"Weather is not climate, weather is not climate, weather is not climate."
There. Feel better? Good.
- From Cliff Mass's Weather Blog:
JANUARY 2010 WAS THE WARMEST JANUARY ON RECORD IN SEATTLE INCLUDING THE RECORDS FROM THE FEDERAL BUILDING THAT GO BACK TO 1891. Yes, 1891.
This is a major new record.
Seattle had a mean temperature in January of 47.0F. The old record was 46.55F in January 2006. Take a look at this table [not shown] of Seattle-Tacoma Airport observations. The fifth column has the daily deviation from normal. NOT ONE DAY WAS BELOW NORMAL. The warmth had a multiplicity of origins: southwest flow and clouds during the first half of the month, easterly flow with downslope warming in the second half, and a lack of cold air over the region. The latter half of the month was dominated by El Nino-like patterns with much of the precipitation going in south of the NW.
Now, I will say that Cliff Mass goes out of his way (a little too far out of his way, perhaps) in de-linking current weather with that old bugaboo, AGW.
Now today's blog has taken on the global warming scaresters and hypers, but even more ridiculous are the claims of some organizations and websites that that GW is some plot by the liberals and leftists or that there is no science between the threat. But this is for another time.
Sometimes it doesn't help to be measured and reasonable when your critics and/or opponents don't find themselves to be bothered by such civility.
But I digress.
And remember: "Weather is not climate, weather is not climate, weather is not climate."
- From the New York Times: Everything Is in Place in Vancouver, Except the Snow
The Olympic plans at Cypress were undercut by the warmest January on record, which kept snow-making to a minimum. According to Environment Canada, the average temperature this year was 7.2 degrees Celsius ( 45 Fahrenheit), when it normally is 3.3 C ( 38). From Dec. 1 to Jan. 31, the area received 79 percent of its usual precipitation, but most of it as rain.
Snow is in the forecast for Wednesday, followed by several days with rain.
Of course, Vancouver BC is just about three hours north of Seattle, and in the same climatic region, so what would you expect?
And remember: "Weather is not climate, weather is not climate, weather is not climate."
- UAH global temperature posts warmest January
uh... say what?
"UAH" is the University of Alabama, Huntsville.
Several scientists there have been taking the Earth's temperature (or, more correctly, the temperature of the Earth's atmosphere in two regions, from sea level to about 6 miles up, and the lower stratosphere above 10 miles) from satellite using microwave radiation sensors.
The data they are monitoring goes back to 1979, starting with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's TIROS polar-orbiting satellite.
An executive summary of the most recent results:
January 2010 UAH Global Temperature Update +0.72 Deg. C
by Roy W. Spencer, Ph. D.
The global-average lower tropospheric temperature anomaly soared to +0.72 deg. C in January, 2010. This is the warmest January in the 32-year satellite-based data record.
The tropics and Northern and Southern Hemispheres were all well above normal, especially the tropics where El Nino conditions persist. Note the global-average warmth is approaching the warmth reached during the 1997-98 El Nino, which peaked in February of 1998.
This record warmth will seem strange to those who have experienced an unusually cold winter. While I have not checked into this, my first guess is that the atmospheric general circulation this winter has become unusually land-locked, allowing cold air masses to intensify over the major Northern Hemispheric land masses more than usual. Note this ALSO means that not as much cold air is flowing over and cooling the ocean surface compared to normal. Nevertheless, we will double check our calculations to make sure we have not make some sort of Y2.01K error (insert smiley). I will also check the AMSR-E sea surface temperatures, which have also been running unusually warm.
UPDATE (4:00 p.m. Jan. 4): I've determined that the warm January 2010 anomaly IS consistent with AMSR-E sea surface temperatures from NASA’s Aqua satellite ... I will post details later tonight or in the a.m. – Roy
After last month’s accusations that I’ve been ‘hiding the incline’ in temperatures, I’ve gone back to also plotting the running 13-month averages, rather than 25-month averages, to smooth out some of the month-to-month variability.
Whoa. Here we're not talking weather in a several-hundred-mile long strip on the edge of the North American continent for one winter, but a globally-derived data set that goes back to 1979.
huh..
At what point does weather become, climate, anyway?
- Finally, just for a little fun, get your very own (if you have a web site, or a blog where you can insert images) World Climate Widget!
This experimental widget uses the UAH lower troposphere temperature data as well as the Mauna Loa CO2 data combined with NOAA SWPC solar information. Additional versions of this widget may appear on this page, check for updates regularly.
They say they're working on an iPhone app, but it's not up at the App Store yet.
Cool stuff, huh!?
mmm... or maybe not so much...
:-/
- bp