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Hard as it may be to believe if you live in the Northeast or upper Midwest, last January was not the warmest on record across the lower 48 states, federal recordkeepers announced Tuesday.
It was warm -- but only the fourth warmest since records began in 1895 and nowhere near the record set in 2006, the National Climatic Data Center reported.
The average temperature last month was 36.3 degrees Fahrenheit -- 5.5 degrees above the 1901-2000 average. The record is 39.7 degrees, followed by 37.2 in 1990 and 1953.
As for snow cover, last month was the third smallest for a January in 40 years that those records have been kept.
Jake Crouch, a climate scientist at the center, told msnbc.com that he wasn't surprised last month didn't set a warmth record given that there were "a couple of cold outbreaks" during that time.
But a few data points did jump out at him: Minnesota saw a record warm December-January that was 10.1 degrees above average.
Moreover, no state was cooler than average and only two (Florida and Washington) were near average.
Nine others -- Arizona, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wyoming -- saw January temps among their 10 warmest.
"Many locations across the Northern Plains exceeded all-time warm January maximum temperatures," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said in a statement, including Minot, N.D., which got to 61 degrees on Jan. 5 -- topping its previous record of 59 set on Jan. 28, 1906. The center is part of NOAA.
Readers weigh in on the spring winter
For the Northeast, it was only the 16th warmest January on record, but the 10th consecutive month that the region averaged warmer than normal.
So is the warmth tied to climate change? Scientists can't make that connection on such a short timescale, Crouch said. "We are seeing a long-term trend of warming winters," he added, "but there are a lot of factors in any given month."
And while it was warm across the continental U.S., Alaskans can tell you they've had it bitterly cold.
The federal recordkeepers made note of that, reporting several towns had their coldest average January temperatures on record: Bethel (-17.3 degrees F); Bettles (-35.6 degrees F); McGrath (-28.5 degrees F); and Nome (-16.6 degrees F).
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News
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The Tree huggers are comming...The Tree huggers are comming !!!!!!
Global Warming is DOA. My god the climatologist fools are already telling us to look out for a mini Ice Age in the not too distant future. Something called Cycle 46 or another number. Folks, I think George Carlin's take on all of this is spot on. We are full of ourselves to think we actually control this planet and nature or could actually do anything long term to it. We have had polar magnetic reversals, many ice ages and subsequent thaws, all way before the industrial age. The last real historical record of global warming was when the N German Plain thawed out at the beginning of the 15th century. The permafrost melted and the Plain became arable. My whole point is even if the earth is indeed warming, how the hell do you know it is because of man since it has happened many times before without industrialization? We really do have a sense of hubris about what we really can do or can affect.
How do we know? We don't. But we have to assume we can find out by diligent research, and we also have to assume we can do something about it. The approach of you and your buddies is to bury your head in the sand, throw your arms up, denigrate Al Gore and the environmentalists, and keep doing what you have always done because you don't want to be inconvenienced. That's OK if the climatologists are wrong, but a disaster if they are right.
No, the latest research shows that an extended solar minimum beginning with sunspot cycle 26 would only cause a small downward "blip" in temperatures for a few years, because greenhouse gas levels are now so high and still increasing rapidly.
Jamie R==Lighten up. It's not like we control any of this. We don't even understand it. In the early 1400's we still thought that the earth was flat. Get a life go fishing or something. Buy a boat and sail around the world we know that it's not flat and you can go all the way around it with luck and time.
If we could change any of this wouldn't you think it would be better to be able to predict an earthquake first. Spend the dollars on that and save some lives. Other than that we are lucky if we don't kill each other off before we get taken out by an asteroid. We have made taking a human life so easy since we became civilized and well educated.
As the article rightly stated, some areas will be net positive, others will be net negative. The US will be net positive. This is not the end of the world as we know it.
As smokie said, get a life, go fishing.
Robert, the reason the climatologists are talking about an ice-age is because of the melt rate of the polar caps and other glacial melt. When the salinity (salt content) of the oceans reaches a crucial point the ocean currents, which are the 'Earths air conditioner', shuts down. This is why Europe is relatively warm compared to its geographical latitude.
Smokie, it's puff-puff-pass not puff-puff-puff. We do indeed control, or at the very least have a good part, in what happens on this planet. We have taken something (fossil fuels) that have taken 200+ million years to create and have released a good portion of that in 200. Do you seriously think that doesn't have an effect on the planets atmospheric chemical makeup? And plenty of money is being spent on earthquake prevention and prediction. Many of the Earths most seismically active places are literally crawling with seismologists, geologists, geophysicists, and vulcanologist's.
P111, it may not be the end of the world as we know it, but with the rate of changes we're seeing it might very well be the end of how we conduct our daily lives. This might not be a bad thing depending on where you live and how your life is conducted in the first place.
GarrettB your waisting your time on these closed minded individuals. Anthropogenic GM is a no debate.
That might be, Greg, but hopefully I'll say something to them or someone else will read my post and make them think about what's happening for a moment. I suppose it's that 'hope' that keeps me going.
keep up the good work brother.
Stop @!$%#ting a brick about global warming people!
As much as we humans might be able to make a mess of this planet, we can not destroy it. Besides... if you believe cars and factories are causing global warming, realize that we will run out of fossil fuels long before things get too serious.
Unfortunately, that's probably not correct. There are a trillion tons or more of carbon (100+ years emissions) in remaining fossil fuel reserves; releasing that much carbon into the atmosphere in a century could cause 10 deg F of warming.
EricH-3359508=== So you think that mankind will out live the planet or the dinosaurs?? Do yourself a big favor go outside and look up into the sky. Take the time to realize just how small we all are compared to everything you see in this one Galaxy.
We will not be using hydrocarbons for another century. We are at the beginning of a transition and it is likely we will be off completely in half a century, meaning we could cut our usage by half in 25 years or so.
Solar modules have just become viable and costs will continue to fall while battery vehicles are probably five or so years from viability and their costs will also fall. That's the nature of technology.
Inho:
Which sounds all too much like Inhoffe.... Human beings can damage the planet, and better yet, they can do something about it. The holes in the ozone layer are a perfect example. By accident, we found out what was damaging the ozone.
We now know what caused it, have made course corrections, and may even survive this learning phase we are going through. Now every chemistry student understands how CFC's can break apart an O3 Molecule with impunity. Thank goodness that one didn't get politicized, or we would all be wearing foil jump suits now?
What concerns me the most is how convinced the deniers are about their convictions. Since when has closemindedness gotten human society anywhere?
The deniers seem so convinced in their "beliefs (and that is all they have at the moment)," or in stories from 500 years ago about warming trends, long before thermometers were invented, that they have given up on being the least bit curious as to why the north pole is melting. The most distressing part is how we are the last reasonably educated culture still "debating" the basic facts.
Smokie, I never said we would outlive the dinosaurs, and I do look up at the sky frequently, but how is that relevant to the risks associated with global warming in this century?
Yes the universe is large but we are talking about our planet. To think humans can't change it is just as stupid as believing in a deity.
Regardless of whether the temps are lower or higher, whether there is more or less snow, the warmer religion will find a hindsight rational as to why it supports their global warming theory. They have become just as bad as their counter-point denialists. Time for people to understand what science means.
Oh come on, pick a side, otherwise we can't get on with the game
Leave it up to the CDC and they will tell you just living is bad for our health.
That's right, it's just a guess. So do you think that you're momentary condideration of this topic trumps the statistical data of scientists who have been spending half a lifetime on this subject?
frank anderson===Frank if all these people do for a living, is to study how bad we are to the world and not living in this world they lost their way a long time ago. They are beyond help. Just like Al Gore.
Smokie your really are blind.
Al Gore's pants are getting wet. He'll have to fly his Gulfstream everywhere to spread the good news.
When you can't deal with the issues, you attack those you don't like. And you obviously can't deal with the issues because you don't know enough to even make an intelligent and informed statement.
He's dealing quite well Jamie, you on the other hand...
Global Warming, Climate change or whatever you do or do not want to call what is or isn't happening. Why are some of you so Pro-Pollution? Don't you remember 40 years ago when rivers in this country were catching on fire and you couldn't see tall buildings in the cities because the air was so polluted? Do you want your kids and grandkids to go back to that or worse? Politicians are saying they will shut down the EPA if elected. Think about the end result. Superfund cleanup sites are job and people killers, not the EPA. Why do you want more superfund cleanup sites?
offtheoil=== Now you are going to the extremes.
Smokie... June 13th 2011 Michele Bachmann, what we need to do is pass the mother of all repeal bills and I would begin with the EPA. Pawlenty..Stands against clean air, I will require sunsetting all federal regulation.. Bachmann, I guarantee you the EPA will have doors locked and lights turned off. Jan 24 12 Gingrich called for the elimination of the EPA. I am not going to extremes, I have been in the oilfield in TX for over 30 years. I have seen gasoline behind pumped out from under neighborhoods while people still lived there. I have dug hundreds of spots that have gas, diesel, MTBE and lots of other chemicals coming out of the ground at only a couple of feet deep. H2S gas from under workshops build over poorly capped and buried wells. These companies can not be allowed to self police, they will do it again. Love Canal and burning rivers taught the world that they cannot be trusted to regulate themselves.
Smokie:
Offtheoil is on track. We are handing over whole industries to the Chinese and the Germans thanks to this endless arguing, and nonsense over getting rid of "pesky" regulation, versus thinking longer term.
Who wants to drink tainted water, or live near a nuclear dump site? Pawlenty, Bachmann, or that crazy Texan, can't remember his name....
Let's wait to see what the science experts on dumb FUX NEWS have to say about this!!!
Oh wait a minute dumb FUX don't do science so we already know the answer...
newbook===So we are to believe this at face value?? I don't think so. These people can not tell you why we went through the little ice age. They have found out that possibly the little ice age might have caused the change in North Africa. It went from a lush green forest to a desert about the same time. This has been studied also.
Smokie,
Don't forget the flood that covered the planet and how Noah save 2 of every species...This is a fact that conservatives do not question and take at face value, seeing absolutely no problem with the story...
Smokie your deep ignorance of science is appalling. It's disturbing to see someone like you post statements as if they are fact. I know it's so much easier to just type what you think than to do the research and fine the answers. There have been a number of people trying to explain to you but your on send (no recieve).
California was warmer than usual? It was 22 degrees at our house one morning this January, on the Santa Cruz CA coast. We were freezing our tushes off. I had to scrape ice off of my windshield almost every morning in January. Just try to find an ice scraper anywhere around here.
The map seems wrong. I live in wisconsin, which has a 108 on it. It was never 108 degrees here in January.
mombo-jumbo mombo-jumbo monbo-jumbo
i never noticed this before, but if you take the mirror image of florida, it would seem to perfectly fit into the space of Lake Michigan. It would seem that some advanced civilzation cut out an extra state so we could have more beachfront, and lakefront, property. But they attached florida incorrectly, flipped over, which is why its so flat, the backside is facing up. But who would gain from such a scheme, and at the same time have such a poor assembly? I'm thinking Ikea.
There are those of you out there who have no knowledge when it comes to climate change, yet you give your opinions as if they were based on facts. You do realize that such behavior is arrogant and irrational right? Here's a question that should make you realize where you stand in the spectrum of things. What if you are wrong. Now, consider the odds of your opinion being just that, nothing more than another BS opinion. You are willing to risk catastrophic destruction based on your knowledge of things. Now that's some really ignorant crap.
ill put some pontoons on my trailer in cases yous is right.mean while im going for a drive in my suv
Yes Tyrone, you are describing the warmists to a Tee
Tyrone - The comments here are just that - comments. People give opinions, some based on facts, some based on what they heard or thought they heard. The impact of anyone on this discussion being right or wrong is nothing. No one here is going to cause or prevent catastrophic destruction. But it is fun to comment!
see no evidence of global warming.im watching fox news now.thanks goodness they dumbed it down for me.its duh liberals.what were talking about.oh yeah its duh liberals.ask anyone in my trailer park.yo sparky pass the beer and the pork rinds.
Well children if we knew a lot more about this planet we would be in better shape but we don't. So we are all assuming our future? I tell you what you can all do. Go out and convince the rest of the world of your thoughts about how global warming and how it will kill us all. If you can do that first then come back and we will go from there. Until then do not lay the financial burden on the American Tax Payers because that's what it all boils down to the cost. We can not lead by example on this one because no one will follow, especially Communist Red China that Obama just loves to deal with.
Smokie:
Having mixed up so many metaphors, it is hard to sort. From my vantage point, after centuries of deep sleep we are finally waking up to the fact that we are masters of our own destiny.
Thrilling and terrifying at once, as we are one crazy species. Just when we thought we had a grasp on what is going on, we could already be past the point of no return.
Smokie..So if your neighbors 5 dogs crap all over his yard and he never cleans it up then you don't see any sense in cleaning up when your dogs crap all over your yard? Mommm My brother wont clean his room so why should I waaaaa And you deal with Communist Red China everytime you shop at Walmart.
Smokie.. Why do you want to talk about Obama and China when it was your hero Reagan that first set up the trade polcies with the "Commies in China" in 1983 that have grown into them having all the factories and us exporting our money to them. And back then they were our sworn enemy along with the evil Soviet Union remember? Why do you guys always forget about Reagan, China, Iran Contra illegal missiles to Iran and all that stuff while trying to trash Obama.
Kasey from all indications we are past the point of return but we can soften the impact if we do something about it now.
Yes...we can all agree...this winter HAS been awesome! Only idiots like it cold.
Notice there is no Groundhog's Day in July for when Summer will end
To really understand climate change and what effect humans have on it, you must also understand how the world's population has grown - 1804, the world's popultation reaches 1 billion people; 1927, just over 100 years later the population reaches 2 billion people; 1959 less than 30 years later the world's population reaches 3 billion people; 1974, 15 years later the population hits 4 billion; 1987, 13 years later 5 billion; 1999, 6 billion; 2011 the world's population hits 7 billion. It took roughly 100,000 years for the world's population to reach 1 billion people and then in just over 200 years we went from 1 billion to 7 billion. If we are seeing changes in the world's climate due to our world's grossly overpopulated human inhabitants, we are only seeing the beginning of it. Nearly all scientists agree that us humans have effected the climate of our world due to our greedy and childish use of fossil fuels. If you think of those who are totally against the idea of climate change as a reality, it's corporations and big oil industries and the wealthy politicians who pander to these businesses. They care not at all for you or your children because when only the wealthy can move into the protected domes, they will be laughing their asses off at your starving and gasping decendants through the glass.
This would make an awesome movie!
Actually, when you mention about a movie, they kind of did one like this in the 1970's called Soylent Green, just no one payed attention to it.
The biggest thing I don't understand about people is that they can understand that a greenhouse traps heat by trapping the sun's rays inside, but they can't understand that gasses we expell from the use of fossil fuels into our atmosphere can do the same thing to the entire earth.
We could all be booted for criticizing Government scientists. Our new living Gods. Bow to them. It's wonderous that they don't burn-out from the sheer brilliance of their own pure white light! They can make a clone glow in chartreuse or violet! But, they can't explain mankind's mental defect that causes us to habitually squander our most precious resources. Curious.
Well, they can explain it more or less, but you'd have to wade through a long and abstruse set of lectures about psychological processes, and how they interact with technology, chemistry and physics, with the result that we end up destroying ourselves, so that our matter and energy can find its way back from the rather anomalous detour called 'life' - but only destroying ourselves apparently unintentionally and unconsciously, because we are stuck with all the scaffolding of evolution. So a movie would prolly be better.
So what? This has been one of the coldest winters on record in Europe. It always balances out. Limited observations will always lead to the conculsion you want to reach.
yesyes:
How about the possibility that the Atlantic Gulf Stream is beginning to shut down, thanks to too much fresh water / melting ice, in the Atlantic? This would cause the deep freeze that Europe is currently experiencing.... To be continued?
Who knows, right? Let's come back to this interesting topic in Summer 2012 when it reaches 129 in International Falls, MN.... Maybe it won't.
Only hope we can do something effective before it is too late. If the warmers are all wrong (hoping they are) then we have nothing to worry about.
So much to learn.
Solar panels are cheaper because the Chinese subsidized the industry and largely drove American and EU manufacturers out of the business.
Here's one for you....the speed up in global warming may be linked to lower air pollution levels. Air pollution blocks the sun's energy, cooling temps. CO2 warms. Now that our air is cleaner co2 matters more.
If we cannot affect the Earth, how is it that we were able to make the air in many places almost unbreathable, poison our water and create huge toxic dumps?
It would seem that if there are ways to get energy without pollution, we should take advantage of them. Harnessing the sun is much smarter, as we'll have plenty of it for a long time to come. Carter was right, had we made a real effort to get solar on every building, we'd be in far better shape now. Costs would have come down long ago. It's not too late, we still can.
we are wasting alot of money trying to change the climate ...it doesn't matter whether we have global warming or cooling...instead we need to be spending money on ways to adapt to whatever it is, because we cannot change it, mainly because we are not the cause of it...
Oh my god !!! please Al Gore save us. use some of the billions you made on global warming to help cool down the planet. because with your help we can move more jobs to places with no EPA. and then hopefully the USA can once again have a cold January. also then we can watch these poor poor country's do the jobs we once did and then every one well be happy. Americans well be living in the streets, but we can all be cold and happy together. God speed Al. God speed....
LOl so tell us p111 where is your Phd in climatology from again ? i know you probably told when you was bragging about your geology and meteorology and other degree's but it slips my mind now . so where DID you get your multiple doctorates again ?
come come man do not deny us , your Great educational past . I mean aq great man such as your self , whom has a phd in climatology and geology and meteorology and special studies of the artic and ant-artic . should not be shy .
My good ness one of the Smartest men ever born . Akin to Sir Stephen Hawking alone
Yes pdab , We are laughing outloud at your ignorance .Ignorance BTW is a fixable thing . Stupid on the other hand is a life long curse .