World sweats through warmest winter on record

Aren't You Glad You Use Dial?

Congratulations, global citizens, for weathering the warmest winter in the Northern Hemisphere since record-keeping began in 1880. From December to February, combined land and ocean temperatures were 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit above average, says a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration study published Friday in Science. El Niño helped make January the warmest January ever; the only places in the world that did not experience above-average temperatures were Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and the central U.S. Another study published in Science on Friday suggests that the North Pole -- where end-of-summer ice has declined 8.6 percent per decade, or 38,000 square miles per year, since the 1970s -- could be end-of-summer ice-free by 2100. And that's the conservative estimate; one climate model predicts a watery September Arctic by 2040. Yet another study published in Science on Friday cites concerns about the effect on sea-level rise of four glaciers in the Antarctic. And you thought Mondays were bad.

straight to the source: MSNBC.com, 16 Mar 2007

straight to the source: The Guardian, 16 Mar 2007

straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Alan Zarembo, 16 Mar 2007

straight to the source: The Washington Post, Marc Kaufman, 16 Mar 2007

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Comments: (2 comments)

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Dial Soap in Maine January 07

I gotta say that it was awfully hard to find a reason to use dial soap this January 07 in Maine. So it makes it a little harder to believe your statistics that Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the central US were the only places to have cold temperatures. Sure, December was warmer than heck here in Maine, but we have had such subjectively cold weather in Jan and Feb that it makes me want to add the Eastern US to your list. The temperatures have stayed below 15 degrees farenheit all day long for days at a time. Of course, they may have forgotten to count Maine in the numbers... Any comments of explanation? I am curious because this is the kind of grist, pardon the expression, that gets used against global warming around here.

by mountainlaurel at 3:19 PM on 20 Mar 2007

Don't expect much, mountainlaurel

I have decided that the folks at Grist are not interested in information that does not support their position, regardless of what's true. They are proponents of a religion based on faith, not fact. I posted the same question you did, and amazingly enough, no one responded.

Here's part of my post, "Credibility requires balance," at the following link:
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/3/19/172241/238

The weekly Grist dated March 20th, which I just received, leads with a story that we have just weathered "the warmest winter in the Northern Hemisphere since record-keeping began in 1880." The Grist article further states that "El Niño helped make January the warmest January ever."

One of the links provided as a source, MSNBC, however, also states that "The season got off to a late start and spring-like temperatures covered most of the eastern half of the country in January, but cold conditions set in in February, which was the third coldest on record."

Why didn't Weekly Grist include this information? Because "third coldest February" doesn't support their position.

Furthermore, if the season started late, perhaps it's not over yet? Perhaps by April it will have all balanced itself out? The temperature tonight here in upstate New York is forecast to be 2 degrees F - 20 degrees BELOW the average low for today and only 3 degrees warmer than the record low. http://www.weather.com/weather/wxdetail//12068

by GaGa at 6:35 AM on 24 Mar 2007

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