NASA: 2008 Was Earth's Coolest Year Since 2000

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2008_temps.html

2008 Was Earth's Coolest Year Since 2000

02.23.09

Climatologists at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City have found that 2008 was the coolest year since 2000. The GISS analysis also showed that 2008 is the ninth warmest year since continuous instrumental records were started in 1880.

Left: Annual-mean global-mean anomalies. Right: Global map of surface temperature anomalies for 2008. Click image to enlarge. Credit: NASA GISS

…

The GISS analysis found that the global average surface air temperature was 0.44°C (0.79°F) above the global mean for 1951 to 1980, the baseline period for the study. Most of the world was either near normal or warmer in 2008 than the norm. Eurasia, the Arctic, and the Antarctic Peninsula were exceptionally warm (see figures), while much of the Pacific Ocean was cooler than the long-term average.

…

The temperature in the United States in 2008 was not much different than the 1951-1980 mean, which makes it cooler than all the previous years this decade.

Note that this figure uses a slightly different color bar than that of the figure above in order to show more structure in the right-hand map. Click image to enlarge. Credit: NASA GISS

“Given our expectation that the next El Niño will begin this year or in 2010, it still seems likely that a new global surface air temperature record will be set within the next one to two years, despite the moderate cooling effect of reduced solar irradiance,” said James Hansen, director of GISS. The Sun is just passing through solar minimum, the low point in its 10- to 12-year cycle of electromagnetic activity, when it transmits its lowest amount of radiant energy toward Earth.

…

[kestrel91316]

1. Not in MY neighborhood, it wasn't! We had a heat wave in late June the likes of which

I've NEVER seen here before. 9 days in Hades including two consecutive days of 117F. But yeah, come to think of it, the rest of the summer wasn't anything to set any records by.

[Blue_In_AK]

2. Alaska has been quite cool for the past couple years,

but we were told that it was the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. These knuckle-draggers up here think it's proof positive that global warming is a hoax. They just refuse to take the long view.

[Gregorian]

3. No mention of dimming. I wonder if that is a factor.

I hope not.

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. "…despite the moderate cooling effect of reduced solar irradiance…"

(That's dimming.)

[Gregorian]

11. Thanks. I was on the phone, and reading it simultaneously.

Sort of how I went through college. :)

[tom_paine]

5. It would stand to reason it would go in stages like that...massive ice mass loss leads to temporary

cooling.

I know that is oversimplifying an unbelievable complex concept, but I believe that overall whateevr is going on, it's many facets, about adds up to basically this generalization.

But it won't last, and the overall trend will continue over time.

Then there will be another massive ice loss in the Arctic, and this will provide great gouts of cold water to the Atlantic conveyor and to the atmosphere.

Then brief cooling.

Then the overall trend reasserts.

Then brief cooling...

...eventually, no more summer Arctic Sea Ice, and no more brief cooling.

Want to guess what happens then?

Maybe Global Greater Depression that is coming will slow us down enough to save us.

:rofl:

[Viking12]

7. Actually 2009 was a La Nina year. The internal dynamics of the climate are still at work...

...as are fluctuations in external forcing (re: the sun). However, those aspects are just noise against the clear signal of a warming trend.

[tom_paine]

9. You mean 2008, not 2009, right?

As I said, it's an extremely complex tropic fom which there are many aspects to look at.

You are looking at one aspect, I am looking at a different one.

I am looking at the effect of the vast Arctic Ice Loss as it translates into atmospheric energy and altered temporary weather patterns in the face of "business as usual".

All aspects are interlocked.

And it's well said, when you said that temporary fluctuations are just noise against the overall signal.

But try telling THAT to a Hannidiot or Savage Weiner or Dittohead who utterly lacks any knowledge of science or the scientific method.

They'll laugh at you like a Nazi would a "stupid liberal fool" who tried to explain to them that Jews are people, too.

[Viking12]

12. Yes, I meant 2008. Sorry for the typo.

[OKIsItJustMe]

8. "… La Niña and El Niño are opposite phases of a natural oscillation …"`

In trimming down to 4 paragraphs, I eliminated that paragraph. You may want to read the original article.

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2008_temps.html

[wtmusic]

10. It will probably postpone things a bit

Driving was supposedly down 5-10% nationwide last summer because of gas prices. Enough to make a difference? :shrug:

[OKIsItJustMe]

13. No, less driving didn't affect things much, it was La Niña

Here're CO₂ levels. the Summer peak seems right about in line:

http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/index.html#global


If driving less would have any affect, I believe it would show up in the CO₂ levels first.

I wouldn't count on any sort of postponement from one (relatively) cool year. Remember, it's the coolest year since 2000 (and warmer than any of the 120 years before 2000, well… except for 1998.)

[Viking12]

6. it's not hard to understand that global warming =/= every year warmer than the previous

Just look at the graph in the upper left of the OP; interannual variability will continue even as the the trend goes, up, up, up.