Monday, January 11, 2010

What In The World of Global Warming is Going On?

Reality is puzzling me, in fact it’s driving me crazy. I’m confused and befuddled. What in the world of global warming is going on? Here are a few snippets from the past few days, from various articles in the national press, on weather and climate.

The South is reeling all the way to South Florida, where the average high temperature this time of year is 76 degrees. Overnight temperatures are expected to be in the 30s there this weekend.

The weather, with temperatures forecast for the low 20s this weekend....

The deep cold was hurting wildlife. Almost 100 endangered sea turtles, which became lethargic in frigid water that shocked their tropically inclined systems, were found floating in the Mosquito Lagoon in eastern Florida

"I'll be 63 next month, and I don't remember a time when it's been this cold for this long," said Jerry Gentry, assistant manager of an Ace Hardware store in Nashville.

Sixty percent of the U.S. population will experience temperatures 15 to 30 degrees below normal at some point by Sunday night, said Weather Channel meteorologist Jim Wilson. The cold will be a "threat to pipes, property and crops," especially in the South, where record lows are possible each morning through Monday, he said.

By the end of this weekend, 180 million Americans will have shivered through a record-setting bout of arctic cold sweeping from the Great Plains and the Midwest to the Deep South.

“Britons shivered through the country's longest cold snap in three decades as icy weather maintained its grip on Europe.” USA Today, January 9, 2009

The weather has been brutal by Britain's temperate standards, and local authorities across the country are running out of salt and sand. A clutch of sporting events has been canceled — including five of the seven scheduled Premier League soccer games scheduled for Saturday.

“The main story in the South will be the bitterly cold, potentially record-breaking low temperatures that are forecast from the southern Plains to Florida.” USA Today Jan 9, 2009

“On Saturday night, a temperature of 35 degrees set a Miami, Florida record that had stood since 1970, said Joel Rothfuss with the National Weather Service.” FoxNews, 1/11/10

Snow fell in Orlando on January 10, 2010. No one can remember that happening.

According to NASA, the ten warmest years on record are, 1934 1998 1921 1906 1931 1999 1953 1990 1938 1939. Odd that no 2000 dates are on the list. Could it be because the earth is actually cooling again? In spite of all that CO2 the world is pumping into the atmosphere?

What I don’t get is, if the planet is warming, if the past decade has been the warmest on record, if CO2 in the atmosphere is rising, if the ice caps are melting...why are we only seeing record low temperatures all around the globe, year after year, instead of record highs? Logic would tell us that some record high temperatures should be showing up, and that winters should be moderating, with record warm temperatures being reported, at least somewhere on the planet. But no, this is not the case. Record low after record low is being reported from the United States, to Great Britain, to South America, and Australia. Something is wrong with this picture.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We see record highs. In fact we see twice as many of them, as record lows (it the US at least). You just choose to ignore the unconvinient facts.

Spurred by a warming climate, daily record high temperatures occurred twice as often as record lows over the last decade across the continental United States, new research shows.
http://www.ucar.edu/news/releases/2009/maxmin.jsp

Right now in Australia:

Melbourne has recorded its equal hottest night ever.
http://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/dead-heat-melbourne-endures-record-equalling-overnight-temperatures/13569

Just the last summer:

Some record-setting temperatures set on Wednesday: 96 degrees in Grand Rapids, Mich.; 95 in Traverse City, Mich.; 105 in Austin; 104 in Houston; and 106 in Waco, breaking a record high set in 1933.
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/news/extremes/2009-06-24-heat_N.htm

Sizzling hot temperatures smashed weather records for July 28 in 18 locations across B.C. – from Whistler to Metro Vancouver.
http://www.vancouverite.com/2009/07/28/extreme-heat-air-quality-warning-for-vancouver-and-fraser-valley/

The temperature measured in Silistra Sunday is the maximum for this day in over 100 years. The absolute June record was on June 26, 2007 - 39,6 degrees Celsius, while the absolute low has been on June 4, 1950 - 5,5 degrees Celsius.
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=104422

The world's ocean surface temperature was the warmest on record for July, breaking the previous record set in 1998, reports NOAA's National Climatic Data Center.
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0818-ocean.html

Jay Albrecht, a Seattle meteorologist with the service, said it's the hottest it has been in Seattle since records dating to 1891. Wednesday was the fifth consecutive day above 85 degrees for Seattle.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32199224/

The National Weather Service says the mercury hit 93 degrees Tuesday afternoon at Logan International Airport in Boston, breaking the old record for the date of 90 degrees set in 1990.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/northeast/view.bg?articleid=1168712

Seattle is bracing for its hottest day on record - 100 degrees Fahrenheit - on Wednesday, as a heat wave grips the Pacific Northwest.
"100 is the all-time record for Seattle for any day, for any month, for any year," according to University of Washington professor Cliff Mass.
http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2009/07/29/seattle-braces-for-record-heat/

The forecast high for Portland today is 102 degrees, which would tie the heat wave as the second-longest consecutive streak of 100-plus days since 1941.[...]
Vancouver hit 107 degrees, breaking its all-time record high of 106, which occurred Tuesday. The previous record high was 105, set in 1942.
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2009/07/portland_closes_in_on_one_heat.html