NCDC-NOAA
In the climate-warming horse race toward all-time record heat, 2007 continues to be hot. Very hot.
The first four months of the year have posted the highest average global temperatures since reliable record-keeping began in the 1880s, according to calculations published May 15 by the National Climate Data Center.
Driven largely by Northern Hemisphere land temperatures that sizzled 2.81 °F above normal, combined land and sea temperatures averaged 1.24 °F above the long-term normal, slipping past a previous record for the same period set in 2002.
NCDC-NOAA
“April 2007 ranked as the third warmest April since records began in 1880 for combined global land and ocean surface temperatures,” the NCDC report explained. “The April land surface temperature ranked warmest on record, while ocean surface temperature ranked seventh warmest in the 127-year record. For the January-April year-to-date period, the global surface temperature ranked warmest on record.”
These anomalous statistics surfaced despite the crop-damaging cold snap in the eastern and midwestern United States. It also included the frosty March that left Alaskans pondering whether climate warming reports should be read tongue-in-cheek, like convoluted poems with subversive meanings.
Yet the rising warmth appears consistent with other indicators. The seasonal Arctic ice melt-back has been tracking record or near record minimums all winter. Overall snow extent has been down.
NCDC-NOAA
The American cold snap, paradoxically, actually stalled green-up and hampered the spring uptake of carbon dioxide by new growth, leaving even more greenhouse gases in the air than usual.
Does this mean cold triggers warm? Who knew? Could this be what they call post-modern weather?