No relief for Earth's warming trend in 2013, studies find

[Buster's Uncle]

No relief for Earth's warming trend in 2013, studies find
Reuters
By Irene Klotz  19 hours ago



(Reuters) - The average temperature of Earth maintained its warming trend in 2013, despite seasonal and regional variations that included a shrinking ice cap in the Arctic and a massively growing one in the southern hemisphere, U.S. scientists said on Tuesday.

NASA said the planet's average temperature in 2013 was 58.3 degrees Fahrenheit (14.6 degrees Celsius), tying 2006 and 2009 for the seventh warmest year since 1880 when global climate record-keeping began.

Using the same data but different analysis processes, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said 2013's average temperature was 58.12 degrees Fahrenheit, which tied what NOAA considers to be the fourth hottest year on record.

The agencies differ in their analysis techniques. NASA for example uses more temperatures from Antarctica, but said the overall trend remains what has been measured every year since 1976 when global temperatures first surpassed the 20th Century's global average of 57 degrees Fahrenheit (13.9 degrees Celsius).

"The patterns of temperature change are very similar across the different analyses, but rankings and the exact numerical value are a function of some of the small differences that we have in the processing," Gavin Schmidt, deputy director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, told reporters on a conference call.

Global temperatures began climbing in the late 1960s, a phenomena that has been tied to heat-trapping greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere.

NASA, or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said the amount of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere is higher now than at other time in the last 800,000 years.

Carbon dioxide levels were about 285 parts per million in 1880, the first year in the global temperature record. By 1960, levels reached 315 parts per million. In 2013, the amount of carbon dioxide peaked at more than 400 parts per million.

The relationship between greenhouse gases and global temperatures is complicated. In 2013, for example, the continental United States experienced its 42nd warmest temperature on record while Australia had its hottest year ever, NASA and NOAA data shows.

Ice in the polar regions presents another puzzle. The amount of Arctic sea ice in the northern hemisphere continued its ubiquitous and well-documented decline, while sea ice in Antarctica in the southern hemisphere increased a record amount, scientists said.

"The situation in the southern hemisphere is more complicated," Schmidt said, noting that wind patterns are impacted by the region's ozone hole and other factors.

"There's a lot of complicated physics going on," he added. "It's not a clean picture."

Ocean temperatures, including El Nino and La Nina warming and cooling patterns in the equatorial Pacific, also disconnect regional, seasonal and yearly temperatures with overall global trends, the scientists said.

"The long term trends in climate are extremely robust," Schmidt said. "There are times, such as today, when we can have snow, even in a globally warmed world. But the long-term trends are very clear. They are not going to disappear. It isn't an error in our calculations."

A third study on 2013 global temperatures is due to be released later this month by the Met Office Hadley Center in the United Kingdom.


http://news.yahoo.com/no-relief-earth-39-warming-trend-2013-studies-230154587.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Planet Getting Hotter, Say Scientists
ABC News Blogs
By Clayton Sandell  16 hours ago







As another frigid, snowy winter storm bares its teeth across much of the Northeastern United States, climate scientists today released new numbers they say show the planet is still getting warmer.

"There are times such as today when we can have snow even in a globally warming world. But the long-term trends are very clear. They're not going to disappear. There isn't an error in our calculations," said Gavin Schmidt, the deputy director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.


Did Weird Weather Track With Global Warming? 

The year 2013 tied with 2003 as the fourth warmest on record, according to a new  report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NASA, which uses a slightly different method for calculating global temperature, ranks 2013 as the seventh-warmest year since 1880, tied with 2009 and 2006.

Last year was the 37th in a row in which global temperatures were higher than the 20 th century average, scientists said, and nine of the 10 warmest years on record all occurred in the 21 st century.

"The long-term trends in climate are extremely robust," NASA's Schmidt said during a conference call with reporters, noting that any single short-term hot or cold spell doesn't dispel global warming science. "Quite frankly, people have a very short memory when it comes to their own experience of weather and climate."

Australia sweated through its hottest year on record, going back 104 years, the NOAA report said.

Last year also brought the worst drought in 30 years to Botswana and Namibia in southern Africa, NOAA said.

Most of the planet's land and ocean areas were warmer than average, or broke heat records in 2013, scientists said. Only the central United States was cooler than average.

"No region of the globe was record cold during 2013," the NOAA analysis said.

The United States experienced seven severe weather and climate disasters costing, $1 billion or more in 2013, according to NOAA.

Around the world, there were 41 billion-dollar weather disasters in 2013, second only to 2010, The Associated Press reported.

Last week, climate scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric research in Boulder, Colo., released data showing Arctic freezes weren't lasting as long as they used to.

A vast majority of the world's climate scientists said the planet's temperature was rising because gases released by the burning of fossil fuels are trapping heat in Earth's atmosphere, creating a greenhouse effect. A recent draft report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change urges countries to cut emissions and shift to cleaner sources of energy.


http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/planet-getting-hotter-scientists-031843031--abc-news-topstories.html