The average temperature for the contiguous U.S. during June was 71.2°F, which is 2.0°F above the 20th century average. Scorching temperatures during the second half of the month led to at least 170 all-time high temperature records broken or tied. The June temperatures contributed to a record-warm first half of the year and the warmest 12-month period the nation has experienced since recordkeeping began in 1895.
Precipitation totals across the country were mixed during June. The Lower 48, as a whole, experienced its tenth driest June on record, with a nationally-averaged precipitation total of 2.27 inches, 0.62 inch below average. Record and near-record dry conditions were present across the Intermountain West, while Tropical Storm Debby dropped record precipitation across Florida.
The new numbers are in from NOAA and the pointy headed scientists are now saying that this has been the hottest 12 months on record, capping a decade that is also the hottest on record, or at least since records started being kept in 1895. Read the report here.
The Director of Meteorology for Weather Underground, Jeff Masters, says that the odds of having a year like we have had are pretty steep.
"And if you look at the odds of this happening … over the past 13 months , each of those 13 months has been in the top third historically. NOAA has computed the odds of that happening randomly are about oh, 1.6 million to 1."
However if you think that this global warming stuff is just hogwash, designed by environmentalist crazies intent on zapping our country's productivity and harming American financial interests, you have a new champion. One Mr. George Will. George, you see, was born in Illinois and knows hot. He has a much simpler explanation for the data. It's summer.
"How do we explain the heat? One word: summer. I grew up in Central Illinois in a house that had no air conditioning. What is so unusual about this? ... We're having some hot weather. Get over it."
George Will on This Week.
Nice to know denial ain't just some river in Egypt.
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Read this New York Times article by Kate Yandell to explore the alarming link between forest fires and climate change.
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"According to “Heat Waves and Climate Change,” a new report from Climate Communication, as of June 18 there had been nearly 10 times as many high-temperature records this year as low-temperature records. If the climate were neither warming nor cooling, one would expect that on average, low-temperature records would be broken as often as high-temperature ones. In the last decade, high-temperature records have outnumbered low-temperature records by a ratio of 2 to 1."
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Now the second side of the global warming axe; the acidification of the ocean, the aptly named evil twin. Apparently the ocean isn't absorbing and diluting the carbon dioxide we are pumping out, giving way to a host of extremely serious concerns. Waiting patiently for that engineering solution, Rex.
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Hudg sent me a link to a subscription only article at the New Scientist. I read it, it was pretty good, free to subscribe.
Worth registering if you are not already. Gives very good explanations for climate change/global warming. etc. etc.I have been saying for a number of years that the dialog needs to change as folks just cannot get a handle on those terms.The problem is we are adding more energy into the atmosphere by releasing bound carbon. It is very simple physics indeed to see what will happen/ is happening.
In other words, what we have is an energy balance problem. (relative to our ideal datum that supports life as we know it.)
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21528721.800-how-global-warming-is-driving-our-weather-wild.html
rh
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