2010 Is Officially the Hottest Year on Record

2010 Is Officially the Hottest Year on Record
BEN JERVEY, Contributing Editor - Good Environment


Well, it's a tie actually. The final tallies are in and 2010 is even with 2005 as the warmest year on record. NASA and NOAA independently released their own reports yesterday, confirming the improbable and remarkable statistical tie. NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies explains:

The two years differed by less than 0.018 degrees Fahrenheit. The difference is smaller than the uncertainty in comparing the temperatures of recent years, putting them into a statistical tie.

https://pre.cloudfront.goodinc.com/p..._anomalies.gif

2010, climate central, NOAA, warmest year ever, climate change, global warmingSurface temperature records go back to 1880, and while both NASA and NOAA's National Climatic Data Center use the average global surface temperature as their variable, they use different methodologies (as Climate Central explained nicely here). Two methodologies producing the same result only further cements the point.

Also, keep in mind that these records are being set during "the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century," which totally refutes one common argument of the climate skeptic. What's more, the second half of 2010 was unique for its strong La Niña conditions, "which bring cool sea surface temperatures to the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean," as James Hansen, director of GISS noted:

"Global temperature is rising as fast in the past decade as in the prior two decades, despite year-to-year fluctuations associated with the El Niño-La Niña cycle of tropical ocean temperature."

The NCDC handily provides a nice chart of the warmest ten years on record, all of which have been lived through by anyone older than 14:

Hansen, the director of GISS, didn't mince words in talking about 2010's chances of staying atop the charts:

If the warming trend continues, as is expected, if greenhouse gases continue to increase, the 2010 record will not stand for long.

I know it's might feel like overkill to write all the time about how, yes, it actually is getting warmer. Seems obvious enough, right? But every day, people are being duped into thinking that the clear and unfortunate (I won't say inconvenient) truths of climate change aren't actually true. So I feel it's important to drive the point home with the relevant facts whenever they are as clear and telling as they are today.

Warmest-Year Claim Refuted as ‘Politics, Not Science’
Global warming alarmists have pointed to the claim that 2010 was the hottest year ever as proof that the earth is warming and nations must take steps to reduce carbon emissions.
But a website that has taken a prominent role in downplaying global warming fears is refuting that assertion.
“The global warming establishment and the media are crowing about 2010 being in a tie for the ‘hottest year,’” an editorial on the Climate Depot site declares.
“Everyone from Senator John Kerry to [noted climate scientist] Joe Romm are screaming that this is ‘proof’ the planet is burning up in a CO2-induced hell — and it’s your fault!”
The site pointed to a Jan. 13 story in Britain’s Telegraph headlined: “Hottest year confirms global warming, say experts,” which cited “new figures from NASA that experts say confirm the case for man-made climate change.”
Climate Depot responded: “This is pure politics, not science. The ‘hottest year’ claims confirm the case for political science overtaking climate science.
“The ‘hottest year’ claim depends on minute fractions of a degree difference between years. Even NASA’s James Hansen, the leading proponent of man-made global warming in the U.S., conceded the ‘hottest year’ rankings are essentially meaningless. Hansen explained that 2010 differed from 2005 by less than two-hundredths of a degree F (that’s 0.018F).”
Hansen admitted on Jan. 13: “It’s not particularly important whether 2010, 2005, or 1998 was the hottest year on record.”
Meteorologist Dr. Ryan Maue of Florida State University ridiculed the “hottest year” rankings in light of Hansen’s admission that it is “not particularly important” which year was declared the hottest. “Well, then stop issuing press releases which tout the rankings,” Maue demanded in a Jan. 14 commentary at WattsUpWithThat.com.
The “hottest year” claim falls apart even further when you look at longer time periods, Climate Depot notes.
Climatologist Patrick Michaels told USA Today on Jan. 12: “If you draw a trend line from the data, it’s pretty flat from the 1990s. We don’t see much of a warming trend over the past 12 years.”
Climate Depot concluded: “The declaration that we are experiencing a tie for the ‘hottest’ year is purely a political statement because these claims are based on year-to-year temperature data that differ by only a few hundredths of a degree.”

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Posted in reply to the post by Zeno Swijtink:

2010 Is Officially the Hottest Year on Record
BEN JERVEY, Contributing Editor - Good Environment


Well, it's a tie actually. The final tallies are in and 2010 is even with 2005 as the warmest year on record. NASA and NOAA independently released their own reports yesterday, confirming the improbable and remarkable statistical tie. NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies explains:

The two years differed by less than 0.018 degrees Fahrenheit. The difference is smaller than the uncertainty in comparing the temperatures of recent years, putting them into a statistical tie.

https://pre.cloudfront.goodinc.com/p..._anomalies.gif

2010, climate central, NOAA, warmest year ever, climate change, global warmingSurface temperature records go back to 1880, and while both NASA and NOAA's National Climatic Data Center use the average global surface temperature as their variable, they use different methodologies (as Climate Central explained nicely here). Two methodologies producing the same result only further cements the point.

Also, keep in mind that these records are being set during "the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century," which totally refutes one common argument of the climate skeptic. What's more, the second half of 2010 was unique for its strong La Niña conditions, "which bring cool sea surface temperatures to the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean," as James Hansen, director of GISS noted:

"Global temperature is rising as fast in the past decade as in the prior two decades, despite year-to-year fluctuations associated with the El Niño-La Niña cycle of tropical ocean temperature."

The NCDC handily provides a nice chart of the warmest ten years on record, all of which have been lived through by anyone older than 14:

Hansen, the director of GISS, didn't mince words in talking about 2010's chances of staying atop the charts:

If the warming trend continues, as is expected, if greenhouse gases continue to increase, the 2010 record will not stand for long.

I know it's might feel like overkill to write all the time about how, yes, it actually is getting warmer. Seems obvious enough, right? But every day, people are being duped into thinking that the clear and unfortunate (I won't say inconvenient) truths of climate change aren't actually true. So I feel it's important to drive the point home with the relevant facts whenever they are as clear and telling as they are today.

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Posted in reply to the post by BizWrangler:

Warmest-Year Claim Refuted as ‘Politics, Not Science’

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The source for your opinion piece is a subsidiary of Cfact, an unabashedly pro oil, gas and nuclear industry shill site.

Science has no chance when it runs up against industries with trillions of dollars at stake.

Public discourse has become downright surrealistic...