July Heat Set U.S. Record 422
gollum123 sends this excerpt from CNN:
"The July heat wave that wilted crops, shriveled rivers and fueled wildfires officially went into the books Wednesday as the hottest single month on record for the continental United States. The average temperature across the Lower 48 was 77.6 degrees Fahrenheit, 3.3 degrees above the 20th-century average, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration reported. That edged out the previous high mark, set in 1936, by two-tenths of a degree, NOAA said. In addition, the seven months of 2012 to date are the warmest of any year on record and were drier than average as well, NOAA said. U.S. forecasters started keeping records in 1895. And the past 12 months have been the warmest of any such period on record, topping a mark set between July 2011 and this past June. Every U.S. state except Washington experienced warmer-than-average temperatures, NOAA reported."
What about the rest of the world? (Score:2, Insightful)
America may be baking, but what about the planet as a whole? Before blaming the elevated temperatures on global warming, does anyone have data on whether or not the globe is also melting along with us?
Re:Hopefully it's an outlier (Score:2, Insightful)
In 1936, according to the article, it was almost as warm. Basically, a "so what?". Between then and now, States have had record cold temperatures as well. This report would be just one more Jeopardy! item, were it not for the political hay that will be made of it.
Re:Hopefully it's an outlier (Score:1, Insightful)
This July's record heat is only 0.2 degrees higher then the previous record. Let's not blow things out of proportion. (Unless you think the record set in the 1930s is indicative of global warming too?)
Re:Hopefully it's an outlier (Score:2, Insightful)
And the fact that weather is setting records across the globe year after year right now, is not a concern because equipment used in 1936 had almost the same reading?
You know what, global environment change might be man made or natural cycle, but if it turns out to be man made, I hope you will do the honorable thing and let someone who tried to save the planet have your spot.
Re:Hopefully it's an outlier (Score:5, Insightful)
In 1936, according to the article, it was almost as warm. Basically, a "so what?".
Never read The Grapes of Wrath I take it.
0.2 degrees higher than the the hottest month on record is certainly a notable event.
AGW Converts (Score:5, Insightful)
Ex-sceptic says climate change is down to humans
"The results of the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature are in and Richard Muller, the study's director (formerly an AGW skeptic) declares, 'Call me a converted skeptic. Three years ago I identified problems in previous climate studies that, in my mind, threw doubt on the very existence of global warming. Last year, following an intensive research effort involving a dozen scientists, I concluded that global warming was real and that the prior estimates of the rate of warming were correct. I'm now going a step further: Humans are almost entirely the cause.'
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/30/opinion/the-conversion-of-a-climate-change-skeptic.html?_r=4 [nytimes.com]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19047501 [bbc.co.uk]
CEO Exxon admits AGW is real and burning fossil fuels causes it.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/06/27/exxon-ceo-climate-energy-fears-overblown/ [foxnews.com]
The natural progression:
We are now at step 4.
Re:Hopefully it's an outlier (Score:5, Insightful)
And the fact that weather is setting records across the globe year after year right now, is not a concern because equipment used in 1936 had almost the same reading?
I think the fact that the previous record was set in 1936 pretty much disproves your "fact" that the weather is setting records "year after year". "Year after year" to most people means "every year or two", not "every 7 decades or so".
Re:Hopefully it's an outlier (Score:4, Insightful)
Should we also rename Fahrenheit 451 to Celsius 232.778?
505.928 Kelvin is better.
Re:Hopefully it's an outlier (Score:5, Insightful)
The 5 stages of denial:
1: It's not happening.
2: It's happening, but it's no big deal.
3: It's happening, it's a big deal, but there's nothing we can do.
4: It's happening, it's a big deal, this is what we can do, but it's too expensive.
5: It's happening, it's a big deal, this is what we can do, the alternative is worse, so let's just get on with it.
Alright - we're at step 2 of the denial process! Looks like we've made progress in the last.... 25 years or so. I hope step 3 won't take another 25 years.
Re:Hopefully it's an outlier (Score:2, Insightful)
I love it.... "Take the 1936 Texas below normal temperature out of the mix and there goes your 0.2F record making difference with July 2012." Of course, if you randomly take out data points you don't like, you're going to get the result you're looking for. Not to mention that their entire post focuses on the fact that not all states all linearly increased in temperatures, which betrays a complete lack of understanding of how temperatures are come about.
Re:I'm ready. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I'm ready. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:FTFY (Score:3, Insightful)
The 5 XXXx 6 stages of denial:
1: It's not happening.
2: It's happening, but it's no big deal.
3: It's happening, it's a big deal, but there's nothing we can do.
4: It's happening, it's a big deal, this is what we can do, but it's too expensive.
5: It's happening, it's a big deal, it's too late to do what we could have done earlier, next time be rich like us so you can insulate yourself from the consequences
6. It's happening. We're DOOMED! Why didn't those damned greenie hippies DO something about this while there was still time????
Re:Choose, denialists (Score:4, Insightful)
The 1936 record was a monthly average record, not a yearly record. Even if we didn't beat it, 1936 wouldn't be in the top 10 yearly records while 2012 will almost certainly be.
The monthly records prior to 2012 were not all in the same year. The new monthly records are now all from the same year.