Highlights
On Friday, NASA reported that the “meteorological year” spanning from December 2009 to November 2010 was the warmest in that agency’s 131 years of record keeping. Never mind that the meteorological year is relevant only to meteorologists – the news still made headlines. The bottom line is that all of the data as measured by land, sea, air, and even from space, shows 2010 has been an unusually warm year globally. This can be partially linked to El Nino conditions that were present up until last spring, but also to increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which scientists say are very likely responsible for a large portion of the long-term warming trend. This year’s warmth is especially noteworthy because 2010 fell in a period of lower solar irradiance, which can help cool the climate. “The new record temperature in 2010 is particularly meaningful because it occurs when the recent minimum of solar irradiance is having its maximum cooling effect,” wrote James Hansen, longtime director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, along with three colleagues.
The warm year is also interesting because a strong La Nina event got underway late last summer, and has helped to dampen global average temperatures since then.
The source article Capital Weather Gang was published December 13, 2010 by With climate change, long-term trends are key .
