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Community => Recreation Commons => Our researchers have made a breakthrough! => Topic started by: Buster's Uncle on January 21, 2014, 10:47:04 pm

Title: 2013 another unusually warm year across globe, US says
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 21, 2014, 10:47:04 pm

2013 another unusually warm year across globe, US says
AFP
By Kerry Sheridan  22 minutes ago


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Children play in the fountain in Washington Square Park on July 15, 2013 in New York City (AFP Photo/Andrew Burton)



Washington (AFP) - Last year was among a handful of the warmest on record since 1880, according to US government figures out Tuesday that provide more evidence that the planet is heating up.

Human-caused pollution and the burning of fossil fuels such as oil and coal have driven up greenhouse gas levels, leading to this long-term rise in temperatures, said the US space agency NASA.

Carbon dioxide is at its highest level in the atmosphere in 800,000 years, having risen from 285 parts per million in 1880 to 400 parts per million last year, NASA said.

Unless current trends change, scientists said the world should expect each of the coming decades to be warmer than the last, said NASA climatologist Gavin Schmidt.

He described the warming of the past few decades as "unusual," and urged people not to judge whether climate change is happening or not based on random weather events like cold snaps."

"The long-term trends in climate are extremely robust," he told reporters.

"People have a very short memory when it comes to their own experience of weather and climate, and the only way that we can have a long-term assessment of what is going on is by looking at the data."

NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) both released their annual global figures on climate, which were independently produced but found similar increases in temperature across the planet.

According to NOAA, the average of combined land and ocean surface temperatures in 2013 was 1.12 degrees Fahrenheit (0.62 Celsius) above the 20th century average of 57 degrees Fahrenheit (13.9 Celsius).

NOAA found that 2013 tied with 2003 as the fourth warmest year since records began in 1880, while NASA said last year ranked seventh.

However, experts said the actual temperature differences between years are very small, and that the overall trend toward a warming planet is clear.

Last year also marked the 37th year in a row with higher than average global temperatures.

All 13 years of the 21st century have been among the warmest on record, NOAA said, with the hottest being 2010, 2005, and 1998.

A key difference between last year and other top years of the past decade is that 2013 had no El Nino effect to warm the equatorial region, a weather phenomenon that would have been expected to cause an uptick in global temperatures.

Forecasters say El Nino could return in 2014, with the potential to make this coming year even hotter than last.

Another concerning effect of global warming is the melting of sea ice in the Arctic, which is expected to cause sea level rises over time that will endanger coastal communities around the world.

"Arctic sea ice is down considerably, especially over the past 10 to 11 years," said Tom Karl, director of NOAA's Climatic Data Center.

Last year marked the sixth smallest sea ice extent in the Arctic on record, while the Antarctic saw the opposite trend, and sea ice was above average.

While most of the world experienced above-average annual temperatures, a few small regions in the central United States, eastern Pacific and South America were cooler than average, according to NOAA.


http://news.yahoo.com/2013-another-unusually-warm-across-globe-us-says-222156184.html (http://news.yahoo.com/2013-another-unusually-warm-across-globe-us-says-222156184.html)

Title: NOAA: World in 2013 was 4th hottest on record
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 21, 2014, 10:50:51 pm

NOAA: World in 2013 was 4th hottest on record
Associated Press
By SETH BORENSTEIN  1 hour ago


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FILE - In this Nov. 14, 2013 file photo, Typhoon Haiyan survivors walk through ruins in the village of Maraboth, in the Philippines. Last year was tied for the fourth warmest year on record around the world. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Tuesday released its global temperature figures for 2013. The average world temperature was 58.12 degrees (14.52 Celsius) tying with 2003 for the fourth warmest since 1880.(AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)



WASHINGTON (AP) — Last year tied for the fourth hottest year on record around the globe.

The average world temperature was 58.12 degrees (14.52 Celsius) tying with 2003 for the fourth warmest since 1880, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Tuesday.

At the same time, NASA, which calculates records in a different manner, ranked last year as the seventh warmest on record, with an average temperature of 58.3 degrees (14.6 Celsius). The difference is related to how the two agencies calculate temperatures in the Arctic and other remote places and is based on differences that are in the hundredths of a degree, scientists said.

Both agencies said nine of the 10th warmest years on record have happened in the 21st century. The hottest year was 2010, according to NOAA.

The reports were released as a big snowstorm was hitting the U.S. East Coast.

"There are times such as today when we can have snow even in a globally warmed world," said Gavin Schmidt, deputy director of NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies in New York. "But the long term trends are not going to disappear ... Quite frankly people have a very short memory when it comes to climate and weather."

Those longer trends show the world has seen "fairly dramatic warming" since the 1960s with "a smaller rate of warming over the last decade or so," said Thomas Karl, director of NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. In the past 50 years, the world annual temperature has increased by nearly 1.4 degrees (0.8 degrees Celsius), according to NOAA data.

Unlike 2012, much of the worst heat and biggest climate disasters last year were outside the U.S. Parts of central Asia, central Africa and Australia were record warm. Only a few places, including the central U.S., were cooler than normal last year.


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FILE - In this Dec. 25, 2013 file photo, children line up to receive a Christmas gift from volunteers near a giant lantern with the colors of the Philippine flag, in Tacloban, Philippines, a city devastated by the Nov. 8 typhoon Haiyan. Last year was tied for the fourth warmest year on record around the world. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Tuesday released its global temperature figures for 2013. The average world temperature was 58.12 degrees (14.52 Celsius) tying with 2003 for the fourth warmest since 1880. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)


Temperatures that were only the 37th warmest for the nation last year. That followed the warmest year on record for the U.S.

Last year, the world had 41 billion-dollar weather disasters, the second highest number behind only 2010, according to insurance firm Aon Benfield, which tracks global disasters. Since 2000, the world has averaged 28 such billion dollar disasters, which are adjusted for inflation.

Nearly half of last year's biggest weather disasters were in Asia and the Pacific region, including Typhoon Haiyan, which killed at least 6,100 people and caused $13 billion in damage to the Philippines and Vietnam. Other costly weather disasters included $22 billion from central European flooding in June, $10 billion in damage from Typhoon Fitow in China and Japan, and a $10 billion drought in much of China, according to the insurance firm.

Usually the weather event called El Nino, a warming of the central Pacific, is responsible for boosting already warm years into the world's hottest years. But in 2013, there was no El Nino.

The fact that a year with no El Nino "was so hot tells me that the climate really is shifting," said Andrew Dessler, a Texas A&M University climate scientist, who was not part of either the NOAA or NASA teams.

For many people, global warming first hit the headlines in 1988 when NASA climate scientist James Hansen testified before Congress on a hot summer day. That year ended up the warmest on record at the time. But on Tuesday, it was knocked out of the 20 top hottest years by 2013.

___

Online:

NOAA climate report: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/2013/13 (http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/2013/13)

NASA climate report: http://1.usa.gov/1kUFqhj (http://1.usa.gov/1kUFqhj)

Aon Benfield climate disasters report: http://bit.ly/KCwbS4 (http://bit.ly/KCwbS4)


http://news.yahoo.com/noaa-world-2013-4th-hottest-record-174925839.html (http://news.yahoo.com/noaa-world-2013-4th-hottest-record-174925839.html)