The world's getting hotter?

[Rodney Mills]

The heat is on; NOAA, NASA say 2014 warmest year on record.



WASHINGTON (AP) — For the third time in a decade, the globe sizzled to the hottest year on record, federal scientists announced Friday.

Both the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA calculated that in 2014 the world had its hottest year in 135 years of record-keeping. Earlier, the Japanese weather agency and an independent group out of University of California Berkeley also measured 2014 as the hottest on record.

NOAA said 2014 averaged 58.24 degrees Fahrenheit, 1.24 degrees above the 20th-century average.

But NASA, which calculates temperatures slightly differently, put 2014's average temperature at 58.42 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 1.22 degrees above their average, which they calculate for 1951-1980.

Earth broke NOAA records set in 2010 and 2005. The last time the Earth set an annual NOAA cold record was in 1911.

NOAA also said last month was the hottest December on record. Six months last year set marks for heat. The last time Earth set a monthly cold record was in December 1916.

"The globe is warmer now than it has been in the last 100 years and more likely in at least 5,000 years," said climate scientist Jennifer Francis of Rutgers University, who wasn't part of either research team. "Any wisps of doubt that human activities are at fault are now gone with the wind."

Texas A&M University climate scientist Andrew Dessler and other experts said the latest statistics should end claims by non-scientists that warming has stopped.

The heat was driven by record warmth in the world's oceans that didn't just break old marks: It shattered them. Record warmth spread across far eastern Russia, the western part of the United States, interior South America, much of Europe, northern Africa and parts of Australia. One of the few cooler spots was in the central and eastern United States.

Nine of the 10 hottest years in NOAA global records have occurred since 2000. The odds of this happening at random are about 650 million to 1, according to University of South Carolina statistician John Grego. Two other statisticians confirmed his calculations.

Climate scientists say one of the most significant parts of 2014's record is that it happened during a year where there was no El Nino weather oscillation. During an El Nino, when a specific area of the central Pacific warms unusually and influences weather worldwide, global temperatures tend to spike. Previous records, especially in 1998, happened during El Nino years.

Every year in the 21st century has been in the top 20 warmest years on record, according to NOAA.

"We are witnessing, before our eyes, the effect of human-caused climate change," said Pennsylvania State University professor Michael Mann. "It is exceptionally unlikely that we would be seeing a record year, during a record warming decade, during a multi-decadal period of warmth that appears to be unrivaled over at least the past millennium if it were not for the rising of planet-warming gases produced by fossil fuel burning."

Some non-scientists who deny man-made global warming have pointed to satellite temperature records — which only go back to 1979 — which show a warming world, but no record this year and less of a recent increase than the longer-term ground thermometers. But Mann, Dessler, Francis and others say there have been quality and trustworthy issues with some satellite measurements and they only show what's happening far above the ground. They said ground measurements are also more important because it is where we live.

Francis said with the margin of error it doesn't matter as much if 2014 was the warmest or second, third or sixth — what matters is that there is a "clear, consistent and incontrovertible" warming of Earth.


Just thought the above might be of interest.

The past two winters have been much COLDER in South Carolina than usual and "we are not amused". Still they are talking about the world as a whole and not just my little patch of heaven on earth. Anyway, if I could live another twenty years or so, and the sea keeps rising. I could have beach front property.

However it seems the cold winter is not in the places it should be, which is the Arctic and Antarctic.

Talking about the weather and the sea. Next week is forecasted to be sunny and no rain, and in the 60s f.. So the wife and I are off to the beach for a week.

Cheers, Rodney

[Keith at Tregenna]

Pretty much not to good here: K

[John Callon]

If the scientists came and stood in my back garden tonight their theory would be shot to hell. Its -4c and tomorrow we are expecting a high of 2c.
Regards
John

[vic mcclymont]

I don't believe the nonsense that man is causing climate change.
NASA has now stated that the figures that they produced have a probability of only 38% accuracy, the claim for the highest temperature is based on the 2014 yearly average.
In fact the 15 years from 1997 showed no change at all in the rate of global temperature rises.
Some scientists have calculated the rise in temperatures since 1951 as only 0.12c per decade.
A few years ago there were claims that the Arctic ice was melting and sea levels would rises causing wide spread flooding. The ice has actually grown at its fastest in a long time and is back at its previous size.
Vic.

[Captain Kong]

If it was the Warmest on record, Why has my gas heating Bill gone up? I had the Heating on for most of our summer.
Methinks Scientists and Greens talk a load of crap just to keep themselves in a cushy job, Governments listen to them and increase TAXES on my little car.
Cheers
Brian

[Jim Brady]

They say it's going to hit minus 7 here in Liverpool.It hasn't reached that yet and already we have train cancellations and planes being delayed for take off because of a bit of frost.
Regards.
jim.B.

[j.sabourn]

#5.... Brian not time to take off the Long Johns then... Are you away yet? JS

[Jim Brady]

If it was the Warmest on record, Why has my gas heating Bill gone up? I had the Heating on for most of our summer.
Methinks Scientists and Greens talk a load of crap just to keep themselves in a cushy job, Governments listen to them and increase TAXES on my little car.
Cheers
Brian

It's the price of gas today Brian,it's Maggies fault for selling the gas off to privatisation LOL !!!!that should put a smile on your face.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[John Gill]

#6; -7 Jim? Nothing!!- Try sleeping a few inches away from a frozen St Lawrence River early April, with an icebreaker ploughing a route to Montreal ahead, and the heating gone off in your cabin. Global Warming? As Ricky Tomlinson would say 'My A***!'
Gilly

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi All.
Temps in Australia have been around 39/40 degrees in the outback all summer, Adelaide a week of 36 degrees, Melbourne cooking every day, Sydney beaches packed with people trying to cool off. Down here in Cooma near the Southern Alps we have had a dooner on the bed all summer, I think it reached 30 degrees for two days so it depends on where you live I suppose.
But it certainly has been hotter longer this year than all the years I've spent in Aus.
Cheers Des