Re: [asa] World sets ocean temperature record

On Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 2:51 PM, Dave Wallace <wmdavid.wallace@gmail.com>wrote:

> Rich
>
> What the news story doesn't mention is that this is the second straight
>> record month for global ocean temps.
>>
>

>
>
> I thought you told me last summer that two months is too short a period to
> establish any trend in terms of GW. At the time I was commenting upon the
> unusually wet and cold summer that eastern Ontario and probably the areas
> in the US just to our south, was having. By the way our July this year was
> extremely cold although August has returned to more usual temperatures with
> highs in the range of 25 to 31.

Correct. Two months is not a trend but this quote from the NCDC is a trend:

July 2009 was the 33rd consecutive July with an average global land and
> ocean surface temperature above the 20th century average. The last July
> with global temperatures below the 20th century average occurred in 1976.
>

As for Canada having unusually cool temperatures the following map of
temperature anomalies should explain it.

http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/get-file.php?report=global&file=map-blended-mntp&year=2009&month=7&ext=gif

According to Environment Canada<http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/canada_e.html>,
temperatures across Ontario were well below average, with an overall anomaly
of 2.2°C (4.0°F) below average. Several locations experienced their lowest
temperatures since 1992, and three locations set new low mean temperatures.
Pickle Lake set a new monthly low mean temperature for the month of July as
temperatures dropped to 14.4°C (57.9°F), surpassing the previous record of
14.5°C (58.1°F) set in 1965. Ridgetown and Elliot Lake also broke their
monthly low mean temperatures which were first set in 1891 and 1996,
respectively.

Global warming does not guarantee every place on the globe is warm, just
that the dice are "loaded" for warmth. And just because it was cooler in
Canada and the Eastern U.S. did not mean that it was also cooler elsewhere.
On average, July 2009 was fifth warmest on record. But then again if you
stick one foot in boiling water and one foot in freezing water on average
you would be comfortable. :-)

Rich Blinne
Member ASA

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Fri Aug 21 19:45:16 2009