And the Heat Goes on: Warmest March on Record

[RamboLiberal]

Source: ABC News

Last month was the warmest March on record worldwide, based on records back to 1880, scientists reported Thursday.

The average temperature for the month was 56.3 degrees Fahrenheit (13.5 degrees Celsius), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported.

That was 1.39 degrees F (0.77 C) above the average for the month over the 20th century.

NOAA researchers said the warmer-than-normal conditions were especially notable in northern Africa, South Asia, Tibet, Delhi, India and Canada.

Cooler-than-normal regions included Mongolia and eastern Russia, northern and western Europe, Mexico, northern Australia, western Alaska and the southeastern United States.



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Green/wireStory?id=10383749

[callous taoboy]

1. Alarmist

:sarcasm:

[truthisfreedom]

2. First March in Minnesota history with no snow whatsoever.

Very scary.

[alp227]

3. Climategate WAS really phony after all.

Those fools who jacked those emails have very little understanding of how science works and are really out there to smear the scientists and defend corporate goons like the oil industry. Thank you for posting this.

[notadmblnd]

4. My highest gas bill for the season was in March.

Go figure:shrug:

[Demeter]

5. You Were Paying for February in March

and February was damn cold.

[Ter]

27. +1

Data is being picked and chosen. They would keep quiet if it were the coolest March on record.

[GameChanger]

6. And Florida had the 4th coldest winter since they started keeping records.

I'd be more of a believer about global warming IF people such as Al Gore, George Soros and a whole string of Goldman Sachs buddies weren't on the money making bandwagon. Yeah, I know, the Koch family is on the anti-climate change side.

With so much manipulation of data and $$$ influence buying of scientists -- how do we know what's real any more?

I've done a lot of reading on climate change over the past year, and the world has experienced both warming and cooling periods in past centuries. So is climate change a regularly occurring function of our world or man made?

There is enough independent evidence to suggest that there is indeed manipulation being done by both sides of this particular fight.

I prefer to keep an open mind on the topic and leave the team mentality at the door.

[bergie321]

8. So I take it

You don't believe in electricity either? That when you flip the switch, your lights turn on magically? People make money on everything. That doesn't make the science any less real.

[beardown]

9. So go with the consensus of the world's climate scientists.

It's not a few bought and paid for climate scientists that are behind the findings. You are basically describing the relative handful that are indeed making a living trying to discredit the huge body of work supporting global warming.

"I prefer to keep an open mind on the topic and leave the team mentality at the door."
Reality has no team. Just reality. Please, cite the sources for your reading that you've done that compares to the worldwide research done by the vast majority of the world's climate scientists. I'm not saying that you haven't tried to read legitimate sources, but just because someone reads an article stating that the world is flat doesn't mean that it has equal standing to years of research stating that the world is round.

And note how each side deals with incorrect findings. The legitimate scientists supporting the theory of global warming immediately removed the information in their report about the speed of the melting of the Himalayan glaciers. Meanwhile, you only have to read DU global warming debates for a month or two before you find the same repeatedly discredited anti-global warming theories being rolled out time and again. And the whole progression of the deniers is right there to see over the last couple of decades. There's no global warming. There might be global warming. There's global warming, but man isn't responsible. There's global warming and man might have a slight impact. Then after seeing what Bush got away with the public they reversed field and went with "There's no global warming and the scientists supporting it are bought and paid for liars and incompetents".

Oh, and the old "the climate has gone up and down before man" line makes you look like you've not only joined a team, but you are at least a part owner as that line is currently in the deniers' starting lineup.

[Chef Eric]

11. Enjoy your stay at DU. nt

[daleo]

14. There's a lot more money in denying global warming

Than there is in advancing the idea. Just as there was a lot more money to be made in denying the health effects of tobacco than there was in confirming them.

Of course research scientists just go where the facts lead them.

[roseBudd]

22. Yeah because Exxon Mobil & Massy Energy are nonprofits....

sarcasm off

"is climate change a regularly occurring function of our world or man made?"

believe it or not scientists have been studying that, you didn't just think of that possibility yourself

[elocs]

7. Unless this becomes the norm year after year it is still weather and not climate.

It's just as wrong to point to a warmer than normal March as proof of global warming or climate change as it is for the nay-sayers to mockingly say after a cool summer, "Well so much for global warming".

I did, however, enjoy the 84 degrees we had here yesterday in La Crosse, WI.
In truth, winter here started with a big snowstorm in December and was over by March, less than 3 months.

[Chef Eric]

10. Huh? Did you read the original post?

It wasn't merely a "warmer than normal March." It was the warmest March ever, since records have been kept. And I haven't seen anybody come out and say that this is definitive "proof" of global warming, either.

[elocs]

12. Even the warmest March ever doesn't prove anything on its own.

Alone it is just weather. Put 20 or so such Marches together and getting warmer and you have climate.

If it were the coldest July on record would that disprove climate change or global warming? Same difference.

[Chef Eric]

15. Nobody has said this proves anything on its own. nt

[elocs]

18. The inference is pretty clear. n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

28. Plot of March global temperatures from NASA dataset

(note NASA calculates the global average independently from NOAA; they think that March 2010 was 0.02 degrees C short of being the record hottest March; all figures are the anomaly compared with the 1951-1980 average, from here: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/tabledata/GLB.Ts+dSST.txt )



And, because taking March temperatures alone doesn't show the whole picture for the whole year, a plot of the running average, over the previous 12 months (eg the last point is Feb 2009-March 2010; the point before that is Jan 2009-Feb 2010; etc.)



There's a fairly steady underlying trend of about 0.15 degrees C per decade, over the last 40 years. We're in an El Nino phase, so on top of the underlying trend, that has meant the last 12 months have been the hottest 12 months on record.

[tclambert]

20. After 130 Marches, a random March should come in around #65, not #1.

Warmer than normal wouldn't be any big thing if it were just a little warmer than average, say, 45th warmest March on record. The warmest EVER means something. It probably won't happen year after year. There's enough fluctuation in the system that next March may only make the top ten, but not set a new record.

To smooth out the fluctuations a little, you can look at it by decade instead of by year. The 1960s were slightly warmer than the 1950s, the 1970s slightly warmer than the 1960s. Nothing really significant to that point. Then the 1980s were quite a bit warmer than the 1970s (about 3 times the margin of error), the 1990s quite a bit warmer than the 1980s, and the 2000s quite a bit warmer than the 1990s. In fact, every year in the 2000s were warmer than the second warmest year in the 1990s. The 2000s were about .5 degrees Centigrade warmer than the 1960s, ten times the margin of error.

Something is going on. My own hypothesis is the climate scientists are playing catch-up, reporting what has already happened, but have missed the fact that it is already too late to stop catastrophic climate change.

But, hey, have a nice day.

[The Straight Story]

13. 130 years out of 6,000?

;)

[daleo]

16. Unfortunately, weather records weren't kept during the bronze age

So we will just have to do our best with the evidence we have, and that which we can infer from other data (varves, tree rings, ice cores, etc).

[The Straight Story]

17. From my understanding, the earth was once warmer than now

So 'warmest on record' does not really say much, especially on a several billion year old planet.

We warmed up after the ice age, with no help from people.

Is the earth warming? Probably. Can we stop it? I doubt it.

We just need to invest in space technology instead of wars and get off this rock.

[elocs]

19. We really have no unified will to stop it even if we could.

Hell, there won't even be anything done to deal with the consequences until it is too late.

[tclambert]

21. Now that I agree with completely.

And that we need to get off this rock.

[zonkers]

23. Its a death wish.

[beardown]

24. True on most accounts.

However, it's the relevant range and speed of change that concerns us humans. Species and society can adapt to gradual changes. Not so well to fast climate changes and even less so when we have a vast agricultural structure out there feeding 6.5 billion people.

It's like I say when folks drag out the old "climate has warmed and cooled without humans" line. Yep. Go ask a saber toothed tiger how the last change worked out for them.

[daleo]

25. The Earth was very warm 4.5 billion years ago

I guess that proves that we are doomed.

[DCBob]

30. Of course there have been all sorts of catastrophic weather cycles in our planet's past..

that were triggered by various natural events. This one appears to have been triggered by a human involved "natural" event.

[DCBob]

29. +1

:thumbsup:

[maxsolomon]

26. We had hella snow in the Cascades

i'm going snowboarding again on Sunday - last chance for the year. the best boarding of the year has been the last 3 weeks. dumps of 40" over 1 week.

extreme weather events fit the predicted pattern for climate change. high averages fit the pattern for climate change. "proof" won't come in a single event. its the cumulative events that fit the pattern.