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Global temperatures continued to be above average in 2013: studies


January 21, 2014   by Canadian Underwriter


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It has been 38 years since the world has had a year of cooler-than-average temperatures, while 2013 was either the fourth or the seventh warmest year since 1880, depending on which United States government agency figures are used.

2013 is tied with 2009 and 2006 as the seventh warmest year since 1880, according to a study released Tuesday by a research laboratory of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Meanwhile, in a separate release, the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) stated 2013 “ties with 2003 as the fourth warmest year globally since records began in 1880.”

In its December 2013 global analysis, Asheville, North Carolina-based NCDC published a table listing the 10 warmest years since 1880, when ranked by temperature anomoly (the difference between the average temperature that year and the 20th century average) for the year. The highest anomoly, in 2010, was 0.66 degrees Celsius. NCDC listed 11 years, because 2 years (2013) tied for fourth place (with anomolies of 0.62 degrees Celsius). The third warmest year on NCDC’s list, with an anomoly of 0.63 Celsius, was 1998.

“With the exception of 1998, the 10 warmest years in the 134-year record all have occurred since 2000, with 2010 and 2005 ranking as the warmest years on record,” according to a release Tuesday from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). “Each successive year will not necessarily be warmer than the year before, but with the current level of greenhouse gas emissions, scientists expect each successive decade to be warmer than the previous.”

NASA’s GISS, based at Columbia University in New York City,  released a study Jan. 21 on global temperatures in 2013. That study is based on weather data from more than 1,000 meteorological stations around the world. The study also uses satellite observations of sea-surface temperature and Antarctic research station measurements, “taking into account station history and urban heat island effects.”

NASA noted GISS uses software to calculate the difference “between surface temperature in a given month and the average temperature for the same place from 1951 to 1980.” That 30-year period “functions as a baseline for the analysis.”

Both GISS and NCDC noted that 1976 was the most recent year in which the global average temperature had been below average.

“Temperatures across most of North America were above average during 2013, but overall more moderate than 2012, which brought record heat to much of the continent,” NCDC noted.

“It was warmer than average during winter for both Canada and the United States. However, the contiguous United States observed its coolest spring since 1996 and first cooler-than-average season overall since winter 2010/11. Canada was warmer than average for the spring, and summer was the eighth warmest on record.”

In Europe, NCDC noted, the temperature in Austria exceeded 40 Celsius for the first time since record-keeping began 245 years ago.

“Austria had its second warmest July, tied with 1983 and behind 2006, since records began in 1767,” NCDC stated. “On August 8th, Austria set a new national record high temperature of 40.5°C (104.9°F) in lower German-Altenburg.”

Not all regions experienced warmer-than-average weather in 2013.

Last winter, most of Seberia was 2 to 3 degrees Celsius below average, NCDC noted, adding record-low temperatures “were recorded in Siberia, Yakutia, Kolyma, and Chukotka, as well as the Arctic coast.”

2013 Global Significant Weather and Climate Events: NOAA

But December 2013 “was the warmest of any month” for Buenos Aires, Argentina, since record-keeping began in 1906.

“Argentina’s five warmest years on record have all occurred in the past eight years,” NCDC says.

Annual precipitation was “near average” in 2013 (0.31 mm about the 1961-1990 average of 1,033 mm). However, “central Russia, parts of central and eastern India, the north central United States, and a section of southern Canada were record wet for the year, while a region of coastal western Canada was record dry,” NCDC added.

“Scientists emphasize that weather patterns always will cause fluctuations in average temperatures from year to year, but the continued increases in greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere are driving a long-term rise in global temperatures,” NASA stated. “Each successive year will not necessarily be warmer than the year before, but with the current level of greenhouse gas emissions, scientists expect each successive decade to be warmer than the previous.”

NASA added the level of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere is currently higher than at any time in the last 800,000 years, having peaked at 400 parts per million when measured at NOAA’s Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. The CO2 concentration had been 315 ppm in 1960 and 285 ppm in 1880, NASA reported.

GISS is a laboratory in the Earth Sciences Division of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and a unit of Columbia University’s Earth Institute.


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