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Earth NASA Science

2020 Was Second-Hottest Year On Record, NOAA Says (nbcnews.com) 105

An anonymous reader quotes a report from NBC News: Data released Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, showed that 2020 now ranks as the second-hottest year, with average temperatures hitting 58.77 degrees Fahrenheit -- a mere 0.04 degrees cooler than 2016, which holds the record. The Northern Hemisphere experienced its hottest year on record, surpassing the 20th century average by 2.3 degrees, according to NOAA. Oceans were also "exceptionally warm" last year, with record-high sea surface temperatures logged across parts of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans.

Above-average temperatures also shrank Arctic sea ice to near record lows, NOAA scientists said. Satellite observations revealed that Arctic sea ice in 2020 covered an average of 3.93 million square miles, tying 2016 for the smallest on record. Though NOAA has designated 2020 as the second-hottest year since record-keeping began in 1880, there are some discrepancies among other agencies that conduct similar measurements. A NASA analysis found that global average surface temperatures in 2020 tied with 2016, while the World Meteorological Organization still has 2016 in the lead. The discrepancies among these groups owe to subtle differences in how they account for data gaps over parts of the planet that lack reliable weather stations, such as in the polar regions or over wide swaths of the ocean. But experts say these small differences are inconsequential against the broader backdrop of global warming. The planet's seven warmest years on record have all been since 2014, according to NOAA, with 10 of the warmest years occurring since 2005.

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2020 Was Second-Hottest Year On Record, NOAA Says

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  • by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Thursday January 14, 2021 @10:52PM (#60946596)

    This is slashdot and I don't believe all the scientists so I'm going to argue they're looking at the data wrong. Because I know more than they do being an armchair statistician myself.

    • by burtosis ( 1124179 ) on Thursday January 14, 2021 @11:49PM (#60946722)

      This is slashdot and I don't believe all the scientists so I'm going to argue they're looking at the data wrong. Because I know more than they do being an armchair statistician myself.

      But we’re doing better this year, it’s not a horrific new record! Surely the danger has passed by now! Or at the very least it’s too late to act... right?

      I mean, that first bite of gas station sushi tasted a bit funny, but I’m hungry so why not eat both boxes worth???

      • by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

        So last year wasn't as hot as the year before... So Earth is cooling now, see, it's all good, no need to panic.

    • I believe the scientists.

      The scientists tell me that the lowest CO2 emitting energy source we have available to us is nuclear fission power. They also say that nuclear fission power is the safest energy source we have available to us. Chernobyl doesn't count against American nuclear power safety because Chernobyl was not built by Americans. Even if we include Chernobyl in the nuclear safety calculation then nuclear fission power is safer than solar and wind power.

      I also believe the engineers. The engine

      • I imagine the scientists are going to say 2021 will be cooler then any year since 2005 and 2022 will be even cooler. Why? The Covid shutdowns. We do not need cleaner power, we just need to stay home and quit making and buying shit.

        Repudiate all dollar debt and institute a UBI. Gasoline is rationed and essential workers are moved close to their work and get enough gas to get to work or are picked up in a bus. All jet aircraft are parked and no fossil fueled ships are allowed withing 200 miles of the coasts.

        • That is how we stop climate change.

          We aren't going to stop climate change because the climate will change no matter what we do. We can put an end to global warming from human activity. It's not going to happen as you describe, not in any nation where people can vote because nobody is going to vote for such shit living conditions.

          What will put an end to global warming from human activity, without turning the economy to shit, is nuclear fission power. We will see nuclear power plants get built in the USA like we've never seen before. We wi

  • It's above your head, often, reflecting how Earth will host life in a few years. Some call it the moon.
  • 2016 = election year
    2020 = election year

    Coincidence, I think not.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I have it on good authority that a secret cabal of Democrats will hold an election in 2022 then a much larger election again in 2024.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by HetMes ( 1074585 )
      Exactly. It's a well-known fact that hot years align with election years all around the globe, which are by universal law aligned with the US elections.
  • Been super nice in Minnesota. More of this, please.
    • by raind ( 174356 )
      We got shit for snow in Michigan, it's 40 degrees. Careful what you wish for.
      • Re:Good. (Score:5, Informative)

        by cusco ( 717999 ) <brian@bixby.gmail@com> on Friday January 15, 2021 @09:40AM (#60947752)

        In northern Michigan where I grew up the oldest houses had a door on the second floor for when the snow drifted over the normal doors they could still get out. When my dad was a kid in the 1940s you had to shovel the roof of the barn at least three times in the winter so it wouldn't collapse under the snow load. When I was a kid in the 1960s all of the Great Lakes would still freeze from shore to shore every year and snowbanks were taller than my dad.

        In 1984 my mom saw her first "Green Christmas" with no snow on the ground. They took a picture and mailed it to me in Seattle. Now there has been snow on the ground on Christmas day twice in the last decade, and Grand Traverse Bay on Lake Michigan has frozen over solid enough to go ice fishing once in the last 14 years.

  • The most worrying part is, is that last year should have been cooler because of the ninja effect. This cooling effect, that occurs once every 7-9 years did not bring down the numbers at all last year....
  • by Joe2020 ( 6760092 ) on Friday January 15, 2021 @05:19AM (#60947194)

    2020 sure was a year of superlatives. It was definitely the worst, shittiest, ugliest, dumbest and sickest year in a long time.

  • Temps are flat. The warming effects of CO2 are logarithmic and not all feedbacks are positive. We know both of these facts because there is no hockey stick.

    But please continue to promote the 'we're all doomed' message and the science spokes models who keep feeding your dark fantasies.

    • Temps are flat.

      Temps are not flat. There are a number of places you can go to see the temperature record. Here's a good one: https://data.giss.nasa.gov/gis... [nasa.gov]

      The warming effects of CO2 are logarithmic

      Correct. This is why the effects of CO2 are usually quoted as "per doubling". Doubling from 200 to 400 has the same effect as doubling from 400 to 800, even though the second one is twice as much CO2.

      That's only important when you're in the range where CO2 varies by an order of magnitude, though. At the moment, we're still in the range where the linear approximat

  • I'll believe we are in a climate crisis when the politicians start acting like it's a crisis. That can start with a federal energy policy of bringing a new nuclear fission power plant online every month in the USA. We did that once before roughly 50 years ago, I would think with greater industrial capacity that we have today that this is not only possible today but would be hardly a dent in the US industrial capacity or in economic costs.

    Nuclear fission power is the safest energy source we know of. Accid

    • by XXongo ( 3986865 )

      I'll believe we are in a climate crisis when the politicians start acting like it's a crisis.

      Um, politicians are pretty much the last people to realize that there's a crisis.

      I don't particularly disagree with the rest of your post. I'll just point out that your conclusions pretty much echo what a lot of the people concerned climate change say. https://www.theguardian.com/en... [theguardian.com]
      http://thehill.com/policy/ener... [thehill.com]

      • Um, politicians are pretty much the last people to realize that there's a crisis.

        I'm quite certain that politicians have been claiming global warming is a problem for a very long time. Al Gore has been beating the drum of a global warming crisis for over 20 years. He's also been a large contributor to the problem with his going on a speaking tour by flying all over the world, and in his energy intensive lifestyle.

        Global warming has been on the lips of politicians for over 30 years. They will at least claim to believe it a crisis. The problem is that they are not acting like it is a

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