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Global Warming report for May 2013
- Thread starter redrumloa
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Did you see the late April 2013 one I did?
In related news 2012 was the 9th warmest year since 1850. Down from the hottest year on record, 2010. Making the first 13 years of the 21st Century (2000-2012) the warmest 13 years on record.
The question of late 2012-2013 becomes is this a hiccup or a new trend? If it's a hiccup it may take a few years to see. If it's a trend we'll have to wait a decade or so.
In related news 2012 was the 9th warmest year since 1850. Down from the hottest year on record, 2010. Making the first 13 years of the 21st Century (2000-2012) the warmest 13 years on record.
The question of late 2012-2013 becomes is this a hiccup or a new trend? If it's a hiccup it may take a few years to see. If it's a trend we'll have to wait a decade or so.
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Ahh, the "hide the decline" years. It doesn't matter what reality does since it is now called "climate change". We could go into a full blown ice age and it would still be blamed on
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Meanwhile, in Southern England:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandst...y/07/climate-change-transforming-british-wine
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandst...y/07/climate-change-transforming-british-wine
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To add to the current weather weirding, Glasgow today emerged from the latest winter I can remember, bypassed spring altogether and is currently basking in glorious sunshine and a temperature of 22 degrees celsius. For those of you unfamiliar with this driech part of the world, it rarely gets any hotter than that here.
Yesterday winter - 3 degrees.
Today summer - 22 degrees.
Weird indeed.
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I noticed you were just a few degrees under what it was in NY today.
I'm enjoying Spring here. It's spectacular.
I get a kick out of the red bud trees mom and I planted some years ago. They were just twigs then..................now:
Here's all three trees - we planted the others in front of the neighbors house:
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@cecilia:
Very nice.
I planted an apple seed in a little pot last summer and, much to my surprise, it actually grew. I just stuck it's delicate, spindly little twig of a trunk in the back garden. Don't know if it'll survive.
Very nice.
I planted an apple seed in a little pot last summer and, much to my surprise, it actually grew. I just stuck it's delicate, spindly little twig of a trunk in the back garden. Don't know if it'll survive.
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Let me know if you get any apples off it. Apples are one of those plants that don't breed true. Chances are you'll end up with something like a crab apple - but if you get lucky ...
Still, if it gets big but doesn't give good fruit you can always graft onto it from a tree that does.
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Well, there's only one tree (or sapling) so unless it's a self-pollinating variety, fruit is unlikely.
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Just for completeness:
So yes, we had a cold winter which lasted until mid May.
But then we had (and are still having) one the warmest summers of my life.
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North Pole Sees Unprecedented July Cold – Arctic Sees Shortest Summer On Record — ‘Normally the high Arctic has about 90 days above freezing. This year there was less than half that’
Ice Age Coming! Global Warming! Climate Change! Ice Age Coming!
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Open water lead above Canada, Arctic Ocean by NASA Goddard Photo and Video, on Flickr
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this true-color image of a large open water lead traversing the ice of the northern Arctic Ocean on May 13, 2013. Located north of Canada, the long, wide crack extends hundreds of kilometers across the ice to end north of the Arctic Circle.
Although the Arctic’s ice cap often appears as a solid sheet of stationary ice, it is actually made up of many smaller pieces. Through the winter, the ice is in constant motion as the pieces shift, crack and grind against each other as they are buffeted by winds and pushed by currents. Strong motion of wind and water often results in cracks (leads) appearing between pieces of ice.
Although the appearance of leads in the winter or spring is common, the frigid temperatures and shifting ice will usually cause a lead to narrow and close in short order. As temperatures rise, and the summer melt season begins, many leads remain open. By summer’s peak, hundreds of thousands of square miles of Arctic sea will have melted, only to refreeze again in the winter. While the summer melt is extensive, ice covers much of the Arctic Ocean year-round. But the extent of the summer sea ice – as well as the maximum extent of winter sea ice – has been diminishing.
According to an article published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in April, 2013 “for scientists studying summer sea ice in the Arctic, it’s not a question of ‘if’ there will be nearly ice-free summers, but ‘when’”. Current best estimates, based on several models, predict that nearly ice-free summers are likely by 2050 – and possibly within the next ten to twenty years.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Jeff Schmaltz/MODIS Land Rapid Response Team
Glaciers and Sea Level Rise by NASA Goddard Photo and Video, on Flickr
Calving front of the Upsala Glacier (Argentina). This glacier has been thinning and retreating at a rapid rate during the last decades – from 2006 to 2010, it receded 43.7 yards (40 meters) per year. During summer 2012, large calving events prevented boat access to the glacier.
To learn about the contributions of glaciers to sea level rise, visit:
www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/glacier-sea-rise.html
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Eastern Hudson Bay, Canada by NASA Goddard Photo and Video, on Flickr
Each winter sea ice forms over the salty waters of frigid northeastern Canada's Hudson Bay. As sunlight lengthens and weather warms, ice begins to break up and melt, with retreat typically starting in May and melt-out completed sometime in July. Since the 1970s, the timing of sea ice breakup in Hudson Bay has changed, with melting beginning earlier in the spring.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this a true-color image of Hudson Bay on March 26, 2013. Although snow still covers the surrounding land, ice has already begun to retreat from much of the eastern shore of the Bay visible in the image.
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The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite captured this view of extensive sea-ice fracturing off the northern coast of Alaska. The event began in late-January and spread west toward Banks Island throughout February and March 2013.
Visualizations of the Arctic often give the impression that the ice cap is a continuous sheet of stationary, floating ice. In fact, it is a collection of smaller pieces that constantly shift, crack, and grind against one another as they are jostled by winds and ocean currents. Especially during the summer—but even during the height of winter—cracks—or leads—open up between pieces of ice.
That was what was happening on the left side of the animation (above) in late January. A high-pressure weather system was parked over the region, producing warmer temperatures and winds that flowed in a southwesterly direction. That fueled the Beaufort Gyre, a wind-driven ocean current that flows clockwise. The gyre was the key force pulling pieces of ice west past Point Barrow, the northern nub of Alaska that protrudes into the Beaufort Sea.
“A fracturing event in this area is not unusual because the Beaufort Gyre tends to push ice away from Banks Island and the Canadian Archipelago,” explained Walt Meier of the National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC). “Point Barrow can act like a ‘pin point’ where the ice catches and fractures to the north and east.”
In February, however, a series of storms passing over central Alaska exacerbated the fracturing. Strong westerly winds prompted several large pieces of ice to break away in an arc-shaped wave that moved progressively east. By the end of February, large pieces of ice had fractured all the way to the western coast of Banks Island, a distance of about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles).
The data used to create the animation came from the longwave infrared (thermal) portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, so the animation illustrates how much heat the surface was emitting as VIIRS surveyed the area. Cooler areas (sea ice) appear white, while warmer areas (open water) are dark. The light gray plume near the cracks is warmer, moister air escaping from the ocean and blowing downwind. Clouds do not show up well in the VIIRS thermal band, so the storms that fueled the fracturing are not readily visible.
While fracturing events are common, few events sprawl across such a large area or produce cracks as long and wide as those seen here. The age of the sea ice in this area was one of the key reasons this event became so widespread. “The region is covered almost completely by seasonal or first-year ice—ice that has formed since last September,” said Meier. “This ice is thinner and weaker than the older, multi-year ice, so it responds more readily to winds and is more easily broken up.”
NASA Earth Observatory images by Jesse Allen using VIIRS day-night band data from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership. Suomi NPP is the result of a partnership between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Department of Defense. Caption by Adam Voiland.
Instrument: Suomi NPP - VIIRS
video:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/8600087423/
Visualizations of the Arctic often give the impression that the ice cap is a continuous sheet of stationary, floating ice. In fact, it is a collection of smaller pieces that constantly shift, crack, and grind against one another as they are jostled by winds and ocean currents. Especially during the summer—but even during the height of winter—cracks—or leads—open up between pieces of ice.
That was what was happening on the left side of the animation (above) in late January. A high-pressure weather system was parked over the region, producing warmer temperatures and winds that flowed in a southwesterly direction. That fueled the Beaufort Gyre, a wind-driven ocean current that flows clockwise. The gyre was the key force pulling pieces of ice west past Point Barrow, the northern nub of Alaska that protrudes into the Beaufort Sea.
“A fracturing event in this area is not unusual because the Beaufort Gyre tends to push ice away from Banks Island and the Canadian Archipelago,” explained Walt Meier of the National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC). “Point Barrow can act like a ‘pin point’ where the ice catches and fractures to the north and east.”
In February, however, a series of storms passing over central Alaska exacerbated the fracturing. Strong westerly winds prompted several large pieces of ice to break away in an arc-shaped wave that moved progressively east. By the end of February, large pieces of ice had fractured all the way to the western coast of Banks Island, a distance of about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles).
The data used to create the animation came from the longwave infrared (thermal) portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, so the animation illustrates how much heat the surface was emitting as VIIRS surveyed the area. Cooler areas (sea ice) appear white, while warmer areas (open water) are dark. The light gray plume near the cracks is warmer, moister air escaping from the ocean and blowing downwind. Clouds do not show up well in the VIIRS thermal band, so the storms that fueled the fracturing are not readily visible.
While fracturing events are common, few events sprawl across such a large area or produce cracks as long and wide as those seen here. The age of the sea ice in this area was one of the key reasons this event became so widespread. “The region is covered almost completely by seasonal or first-year ice—ice that has formed since last September,” said Meier. “This ice is thinner and weaker than the older, multi-year ice, so it responds more readily to winds and is more easily broken up.”
NASA Earth Observatory images by Jesse Allen using VIIRS day-night band data from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership. Suomi NPP is the result of a partnership between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Department of Defense. Caption by Adam Voiland.
Instrument: Suomi NPP - VIIRS
video:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/8600087423/
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Amplified Greenhouse Effect Shifts North's Growing Seasons by NASA Goddard Photo and Video, on Flickr
Of the 10 million square miles (26 million square kilometers) of northern vegetated lands, 34 to 41 percent showed increases in plant growth (green and blue), 3 to 5 percent showed decreases in plant growth (orange and red), and 51 to 62 percent showed no changes (yellow) over the past 30 years. Satellite data in this visualization are from the AVHRR and MODIS instruments, which contribute to a vegetation index that allows researchers to track changes in plant growth over large areas.
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
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Vegetation growth at Earth's northern latitudes increasingly resembles lusher latitudes to the south, according to a NASA-funded study based on a 30-year record of land surface and newly improved satellite data sets.
An international team of university and NASA scientists examined the relationship between changes in surface temperature and vegetation growth from 45 degrees north latitude to the Arctic Ocean. Results show temperature and vegetation growth at northern latitudes now resemble those found 4 degrees to 6 degrees of latitude farther south as recently as 1982.