NOAA: Coolest Winter Since 2001 for U.S., Globe

[rayofreason]

March 13, 2008

The average temperature across both the contiguous U.S. and the globe during climatological winter (December 2007-February 2008) was the coolest since 2001, according to scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. In terms of winter precipitation, Pacific storms, bringing heavy precipitation to large parts of the West, produced high snowpack that will provide welcome runoff this spring.

A complete analysis is available online


http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080313_coolest.html

[ananda]

1. That settles it.

Global warming is definitely a liberal hoax
perpetrated by Al Gore. ;-))

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

2. Where'd the sunspots go?

They have been more or less missing since last fall. Is there a connection there? I'm no scientist, but I think there is.

[Bonescrat]

3. We're experiencing what is called "solar minimum".

Natural part of the Solar Cycle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cycle

[jedphoenix]

4. Oh the spots are there...

This is obviously a plot by the Bush administration. By using the US satellite network to obscure solar radiation, he and his cronies have led us to think that...maybe, just maybe global warming is over. That Al Gore and others who champion the truth are wrong!

The real truth is that by using Chaney's vast Halliburton resources to cause this apparent decline in global warming we will let our guard down. We'll stop looking for alternative energy sources. We will all drive our big SUV's and line the pockets of the wealthy oil barons; filling the air with carbon dioxide.

Or...maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there wasn't anything to this whole global warming thing after all! I'm so confused...

[TZ]

5. Wasn't that because of the La Nina/La Nino effect?

I seem to remember reading that somewhere...

[rayofreason]

6. Probably some of it was due...

to both ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) and the the lesser known North Atlantic Oscillation.

http://www.cpc.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/pna/nao.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Atlantic_Oscillation

We are in a negative NAO phase, consistent with cooler conditions in the northern hemisphere. That being said, there is still much about climate that is not well understood. The predictions by some groups of a possible significant slowdown of the solar dynamo with the Sun entering a Maunder Minimum period is a big wild card in any climate discussion.

[Orsino]

7. And let's not forget that the "coolest since 2001" is still pretty damned warm.

I don't doubt that the past year, and this coming one, will still be among the warmest on record.