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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Did it also use 1200 km smoothing?
Have you read the excellent discussion in the Annals of Applied Statistics to which I often link?
I've just found a study with photos of bioluminescence exploration in Bahamas, a study of volcanoes in the sea floor (East of California) and I'm still exploring the data...
And just like rum, we'll know after we let it age for a couple of decades.
Only problem is there isn't a cure for a global hangover.
Aaaahhhh!
Nice post.
I would love to visit your little part of heaven!
don't worry, we will continue eating food, and continue drinking water. Don't let Global Warming scare you from continuing those natural biological instincts :)
Well, maybe I should have qualified my "real nice".
"Real nice" is from Jan to Feb.
"Real Dread" is from March to December...
Too Hot, Too Dry, Too Wet, Too Humid, Too Smoky,
heheheheheh
Whew!
Thanks, I was worried....
ONWARD>>>>>>>>>>>
You're either ignoring the post, or simply confused. I gave you a post from Climate Audit, showing an error in one Mann paper, and you respond with an post discussing a problem with an earlier Mann paper.
There is something common to both of those papers, however.
Someone needs to focus...
Okay...You can visit me :)
that's the funniest thing of all, is to watch Global Warming activists go kookoo for cocoa puffs about the end of humanity. Meanwhile the extra CO2 may bring us back to mostly world wide tropics. Personally, I don't think most of the world that suffers from winter cold will be complaining :)
You just have to pay more for them.
Worth quoting.
That's true, but thankfully when that day comes, I'm definitely well ready to grow my own plants, and hunt my own meat. Because I already do some of that for fun, its just I would have to make that become what I depend on, which would certainly be that much healthier for my body anyway :)
Can you expand upon the sinks and the hybrid logalinear relationship? How do clouds play, or perhaps the ozone, that is now not understood (20 years later) as we once thought it's behavior was settled science, but it is not.
It is quite interesting that the same CO2 item that attempts to march forward (just like the Montreal protocol) the Agenda 21 UN sponsored initiative, could be the saving grace for food to the hungry as we move higher in global population. Think about it. How many people had the corn taken out of their mouths by virtue of gov subsidies for ethanol to go in gas tanks? out>>>
Doing that already....
You're welcome, just doing my job!
lol
You going to have to line up, behind me and 15 Billion other hungry people.
Them animals are going to get kind of scarce....
Of course, we could eat each other.
Kill 2 birds with one stone, so to speak.
Not a problem.
Here, we have 12 years proven reserves.
And no current exploration.... last series of exploration was dry.
BUT,
We going to be fine.
For a couple more years, anyway.
After that? Maybe we eat each other, like Keeper says....
Tropical Cyclone Outlook
16:00 PM FST January 19 2011
================================
The low pressure system to the northeast of Fiji is expected to develop into a depression and possibly a cyclone.
Another low is expected to form within the vicinity of New Caledonia and develop into a disturbance.
Lack of fresh meat, due to loss of ice and difficulties in finding food, has meant that the Inuit are eating more "junk foods" and not their usual diet.
Health issues are already being noticed....
from CNN
Actually, good way of looking at things. Did the same calculations for my solar panels.
Cut and paste from excel...
$13,212.77 dollars per hour
Oil is very cheap... solar somewhat less but still better than slavery.
Much better as a matter of fact.
But it's the old chicken/egg debacle.
Improved recovery is costly, which sends production costs up.
So improved recovery is not an option, until price per barrel goes up.
So then improved recovery becomes an option, which sends the price up....
ad nauseum................
Improved recovery can potentially sequester CO2.
CO2 project near Houston
Sigh... this is non-anthropogenic CO2 that comes from Mississippi... also used to freeze chickens.
Al Gore's most recent commentary on this
Only the extreme wackos claim anything remotely resembling the end of humanity. No reputable scientists is making any claims about the human race dying off as a result of climate change.
I already stated earlier you can't compare the climate of today to the climate of 500 million years ago. We had different landmasses, oceans, salinity, albedo, atmosphere, etc. . Even the sun was different.
We also weren't around hundreds of millions of years ago. The climate we thrive in is what we have NOW. Our food production depends on our climate. People seem to have no idea how much we rely on a stable climate in order to support ourselves. A few degrees of warming can really screw things up.
You also make a gross assumption that warmer temperatures mean more tropical climates. That is incorrect. Tropical climates are determined by a number of factors. Shifts in weather patterns as a result of climate change could easily take temperate climates and turn them into barren deserts, and vice versa. Keep in mind that just because there is more moisture in the air from the additional warmth doesn't mean everywhere will receive more precipitation. As an example, Middle Eastern countries that border the ocean often have very high humidity and heat, but are basically deserts due to the dominate weather patterns.
Ah.. was checking 423 and saws this.
Okay, what role do tradewinds play in this?
What does this question have to do with what you wrote?
Climate Audit is not Watts.
Focus!
That is potentially very good news, since we have no options to petroleum as yet.
As I have said here a couple of times, the only way we can get out of the bad energy situation, is through Private Capitalist Hard Work.
Governments cannot solve the problem, and nor should they be expected to.
I am out....
If it were anthropogenic CO2 I would agree with you. Unfortunately it is not.
I once put together a presentation I called the "world's ultimate trash heap" (getting rid of CO2) and contrary to what Nea would expect Exxon always came up with anthropogenic sources for their forrays into CO2.
What is wrong with this picture?
We have all of this CO2?
And we are using CO2 from underground to produce oil? Rather than exhaust from say a IGCC power plant?
Sticking CO2 in the ground is passe. Did that myself in the 80's (peer reviewed papers on this).
Now I have solar.
Oh, I do support enhanced oil recovery as a means of sequestration... the Denbury project is not anthropogenic CO2 and is thus not sequestration.
Interesting.
Expect with Chinese waiver of environmental restrictions as the article says.
Poor Dr. Hansen... the Chinese are not green nor saving the planet but simply trying to ensure a certain standard of living for a billion souls.
Ethanol from corn is a waste. You get just over break even in the best case scenario, and only just. The corn lobby is/was loving every minute of it.
Of course, most energy researchers were saying just how idiotic it was to use a main staple food source that required massive agricultural maintenance as a fuel source.
There are many ways to produce ethanol much more cheaply and with substantially higher efficiency yields. Hemp, switchgrass, and sugar beets are all much better sources, with hemp and switchgrass being the most economical by far. They're basically weeds. They can grow practically anywhere, don't require massive amounts of fertilizer and/or insecticides, and can be harvested with what amounts to be a big lawn mower.
It's painful to watch when someone or some group takes what is actually a good sound idea and drive it straight into the ground. After the corn based ethanol debacle, it will probably take a decade or more to repair the damage.
the night shift around here is the place to work.
Okay, technical problem. Dead birds (probably from a wind turbine... just kidding). Sugar is great but take this one step further and add some yeast (in reality genetically engineered bugs) to the fermentation process.
Dead birds sort of get in the way of high yields.
Any ideas? I have none but am merely stating the problem....
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