Archives

Twelve-month long drop in world temperatures wipes out a century of warming. (http://www.dailytech.com/Temperature+Monitors+Report+Worldwide+Global+Cooling/article10866.htm)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Polar_Bears_on_the_ICE_Shelf.jpgMichael Asher - Daily Tech - Feb. 28, 2008

Let us hope this news bares out for the Polar Bears sake at least. -- Ed.

Over the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snow cover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile -- the list goes on and on.

No more than anecdotal evidence, to be sure. But now, that evidence has been supplanted by hard scientific fact. All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA's GISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously.

A compiled list of all the sources can be seen here. The total amount of cooling ranges from 0.65C up to 0.75C -- a value large enough to wipe out most of the warming recorded over the past 100 years. All in one year's time. For all four sources, it's the single fastest temperature change ever recorded, either up or down.

Scientists quoted in a past DailyTech article link the cooling to reduced solar activity which they claim is a much larger driver of climate change than man-made greenhouse gases. The dramatic cooling seen in just 12 months time seems to bear that out. While the data doesn't itself disprove that carbon dioxide is acting to warm the planet, it does demonstrate clearly that more powerful factors are now cooling it… http://www.dailytech.com/Temperature+Monitors+Report+Worldwide+Global+Cooling/article10866.htm

Thanks for the find Iceman!

I can verify the record cold part for Minnesota! I got my Insight right at the start of the really cold stuff. :p

Perhaps there is something to the report I heard recently that suggests a sort of mini-ice age of sorts coming up in the next decade or so that could last 30-50 years. The report mentioned a relationship between decreased sunspot activity and cooler temps. Even if the threat of global warming isn't a factor , this still means that we need to do a better job of conserving what we have so we don't run out and freeze to death.

One data point does not make a trend, so I'm skeptical.

Years ago I spent two summers in Alaska and saw how glaciers had retreated. I'd be happy to hear that global warming has been halted, but I'm not going to believe it just yet.

Winter here has been about normal, with some warm spells, and some below-normal temperatures.

Harry

One data point does not make a trend, so I'm skeptical.

Agreed, but that's not going to stop haters from saying "see, global warming is a hoax." Exceptions seem to have the same weight as trends in the eyes of many, and 10X the weight when said exceptions validate their preconceived notions.

On the flipside, to all the people saying that the Earth is naturally warming and it's part of the X-thousand year cycle, how do they explain such a sudden drop in temperature?

Also, aren't strange weather patterns in general one of the symptoms of global climate change...that you can't really predict from year to year what it's going to be? Seems to me like a huge sudden drop in temperature would be part of that.

One piece of anecdotal evidence I have is that I remember several -20 degree (F) days when I was in elementary school, including one day when the wind chill was -70 (actual temp was around -30). I could probably count on 2 or 3 of those days per winter. I can't remember any days even close to that since I was in high school (so for 6 to 10 years). That concerns me more than a little.

This was on Rush today. I got a good laugh out of it. He DID say it was only one year, but does think that global warming is sun related not greenhouse gas related. I think that has been his stance.

Sorry I just wondered if it would show up here and it did!

Here's a real authoritative treatment of the subject:

http://www.glumbert.com/media/globalwarming

Harry

Perhaps there is something to the report I heard recently that suggests a sort of mini-ice age of sorts coming up in the next decade or so that could last 30-50 years. The report mentioned a relationship between decreased sunspot activity and cooler temps. Even if the threat of global warming isn't a factor , this still means that we need to do a better job of conserving what we have so we don't run out and freeze to death.

That's a good point. Even if it is a new "mini" ice age and not global warming. We would need to conserrve energy to heat the place.

Under 0.75 C is so low ... and one winter... every study has statistical anomalies... and this looks more like an anomaly than anything else...

That having been said... the earths temperatures have never been even from year to year... they always go up and down... and this includes some big extremes that cause more than one ice age in our planets past.

That having been said... climate change has always been part of our planets history... you adapt , move , or die... the climate and nature do not care ice ages or heat waves.

That having been said .... no doubt climate changes will kill allot of people with water and food shortages.... more in some places and less in others.

That having been said... living "Green" and such... to me are not about avoid punishments from climate change or failed crops... living "Green" is the moral thing to do even if there was no climate change and even if there was no energy issues and even if there were no pollution issues... I know most people are of the mind set they only act to avoid the punishment ... To me it is good in and of itself even if the climate and such do not need any help.

The better way to think of it is not as global warming, but rather global climate change. One expected result of global climate change is that weather patterns will become more severe, and the sudden swing would appear to validate this hypothesis.

Also, although it is a local low point, the latest point is hardly the lowest on the graph.