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Subscribe to RSSThe calendar says December, but no one east of the Rockies is singing "Baby It's Cold Outside" -- most of the U.S. is enjoying unseasonably warm weather. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.
A warm winter, a record warm spring, a record hot July and a warmer than average autumn combined to make it even more likely that 2012 will go down as the warmest year in the contiguous United States on record, the federal government reported Thursday.
Just how likely?
"For 2012 not to be record warm, December would have to be unprecedented," Jake Crouch, a scientist at the National Climatic Data Center, told NBC News. "December temperatures would need to be more than 1 degree F colder than the coldest December on record, which occurred in 1983."
Based on past numbers, he added, "the odds of that occurring are less than 0.3 percent."
In other words, he said, "2012 has a greater than 99.7 percent chance of being record warm." That's up from Crouch's odds just last month of 90 percent.
January-November was already the warmest first 11 months of any year in records that go back to 1895, according to data released Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the center. The average national temperature through November was 57.1 degrees F.
The year has had a string of warm events, Crouch noted. "We had our fourth warmest winter (2011/2012) on record, our warmest spring, a very hot summer with the hottest month on record for the nation (July 2012), and a warmer than average autumn," he said.
"The warm winter and spring were associated with an unusually northern track of the jet stream, which kept cold Arctic air out of the contiguous United States," he added. "The early start to spring was a precursor to the summer drought. The large size of the summer drought was associated with a large area of the country experiencing a very hot summer. Those conditions continued into much of the fall season."
"When you put these local and regional factors on top of a warming trend for the contiguous United States and the globe," he said, "the result has been the warmest year on record for the Lower 48."
If 2012 does go down as the warmest year on record in the U.S. it would depose 1998, which averaged 54.3 degrees F.
Related: Arctic 'Report Card' lists worsening warming signals
Related: Snow, cold missing from much of US
Globally, 2012 is likely to be among the top 10 warmest on record, the U.N. World Meteorological Organization said last month.
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I don't sweat this kind of thing seeing as we elected a president four years ago who represents the clarion call for lowering the level of the oceans and peace among men.
I'm sure that 95% of his supporters wish that he would just shoot cash out his a$$ in a lawn sprinkler like pattern but hey, you can't have everything.
Yuo seem to be "sure" of a lot of things that in fact make no sense.
I'm sure the empty chair and radical EPA friends love this kind of BS article. Standby for the carbon tax or higher gas taxes , not that it will make any difference but it's a good excuse for more taxes.
Not so long ago scientists were telling us the world was flat. I fail to see how paying more taxes is going to save me from really nice winters!! This article is just more one world government blah blah blah.
And thirty years ago they were telling us the earth was getting colder.
Actually, scientists never said the world was flat. That was the ignorant masses, who laughed at the scientists for claiming the world was round. Sound familiar?
Thirty years ago the earth WAS getting cooler
They must be counting sun spots since they indicate the sun's output level, more spots more heat. The last year has had record sunspot activity.
That can't explain a 30-year warming trend.
If you think this year is hot, JUST keep using the corrupt Republican OIL & FINANCIAL corporate MONARCHY'S 3x's too high priced gasoline AND YOU WILL SEE JUST HOW HOT HOT CAN BE!
We should have been on NATURAL GAS FOR HOME & AUTO A LONG TIME AGO! And, by now, we should have been CONVERTING TO MAGNETICALLY-DRIVEN ELECTRICAL ENERGY which is 100% NON-POLLUTANT, 100% FOSSIL FUEL FREE, extremely cheap to manufacture, install & maintain! Best of all, NO MORE MASSIVE POWER OUTAGES, BECAUSE EACH SYSTEM IS INDEPENDENT FROM EACH OTHER.
There are 3 VIABLE patents by Howard Johnson that have been in our U.S.Patent Office for a very long time! There are people already utilizing this form of energy for their home electricity. And, Troy Reed, an electrician from Tulsa, Ok, has been successfully developing a MAGNETICALLY-DRIVEN ELECTRICAL MOTOR & SYSTEM for automobiles! IT'S ALL HERE, WAITING FOR US! All we have to do is GET PAST the corrupt Republican corporate MONARCHY that has MADE SLAVES OF US!
Blah, blah, blah. Yea we all know it's just one big conspiracy to keep the little man down. Quit blaming others for your failures and get a life.
Everyone NEEDS to start sending their warm weather up to Alaska......Seriously! We've been FLIPPING cold up here...So much for Global Warming...(wink.wink)...peeps really need to use the term climate change if they want to be taken seriously.
Fairbanks just had its 6th coldest November in 108 years! 17 days w/ -20 or colder....and only one other November with more frigid lows..(according to the Weather Channel)
for the majority that thinks global warming is man made, can anybody out there explain the many large and mini ice ages that have occurred threw out history, did they end due to the cave mans camp fires.
Did you take out a patent on dumb?
ronpaul-you ought to know you think like a cave man.
@NorEastern, It's hard to face the facts about the sun spot cycle isn't it!!!! Man has little effect on mother earth. Remember any idiots know that weather changes all the time. So the climate change theory is for idiots only not for true scientist.
"can anybody out there explain the many large and mini ice ages that have occurred threw out history"
Yes, they were caused by a combination of the many factors known to affect climate, one of which is carbon dioxide. If you understood the science you would know why the evidence of past ice ages supports the prediction of anthropogenic global warming, rather than arguing against it as you seem to think.
Enoch, climate scientists understand the sun cycles better than you do. It doesn't change the fact that CO2 is a greenhouse gas.
All of you gore worshipping libs out there, I want to hear all of you demanding to kill off ALL the cattle across the globe.
They put out more harmful emmissions than do ALL the SUVs.
The new lib slogan "Kill the Beef". Save an iceburg, become a weed eater with the rest of the hollywood pukes.
HELP! I've been abducted by aliens and placed on another planet. It took 135 days for my corn to mature this year making 4 of the last 5 summers the coolest in my lifetime.
Living in the Great White North I sure am enjoying global warming. Oh, and by the way there is 22% of the worlds freshwater up here! No White Christmas for us.
Mild winters kill animals who need to hibernate. Last year in February in MD I saw snakes crushed by bikes on roads; chipmunks almost disappeared because they are getting eaten, trees are screwed, etc. Climate change (global warming occurs unevenly) causes extreme weather events. I read a lot re literature on climate change and never saw that there will be cooling in sight - only warming. Also, for those who argue that it's all natural and Earth was through rapid climate changes before, please notice - WE WEREN'T THERE! However many hominids were and they perished, they could not make it.
Also source:
you aint seen nothing yet people and someone needs to send the bozos that print the ''farmers almanac'' a copy of inconvienent truth.
What science? All of this is base on a hypothesis of that we are warming base of a 100 yeas of studying our weather. That is why they change it form global warming to climate change because they have no true data to back up any hypothesis. Because the data actual states we are becoming colder. Alaska is 7 days straight at -58 degrees F. for the high. Oops there goes the global warming and climate change theory. That is all it is a big theory with no data to back it up. So, please discuss real science not some made up B.S. for political points. All of this is B.S. It's like finding a cure for cancer. It's all about money and the liberals are the most dishonest group out there.
Actually it is based on the simple and well understood principles of CO2 atmospheric thermodynamics. It is only thermodynamics, not quantum theory. Go take some junior college courses.
Please don't pretend you know anything about science. The science is quite clear on anthropogenic global warming, and it has nothing to do with the temperature record. It also has nothing to do with liberals or conservatives. Science is logic and evidence, not politics. And science says that CO2 is a greenhouse gas.
Jock
The morons gave that puke gore the nobel prize for it, so it MUST be true.
The nobel prize is meaningless, once that pos in chief received it for being???? half black????
mac, what does any of that have to do with science?
if you live on the water,one day you will be bottling it right off the first floor of your house.
I'm in an area they reported as being red, one of the highest areas above normal, in September for YTD temps. Yes, we had about a month of record highs for the days, but the nights were mild. This follows Jan to April of BELOW normal temps and was followed by a cold last half of August and all of September. How does the overwhelming cold spell plus a month of just higher than normal highs add up to such an above normal YTD temps? Why should I believe them when they LIED about where I live?
Uhmmm. And you are not going to tell us where you live? LOL. Nebraska farmland? Texas panhandle? Come on. Let me look at the ground temperature charts and the crop yield where you live.
Unfortunately, I have a LOT if friends that are deniers. I think that it has to do with the fact that they would have to radically adjust their lifestyle if they were to take it seriously. North Americans, especially, seem to be addicted to the life of excess.
The per-capita consumption of the United States dwarfs that of any other country. With 5% of the world's population, they happily consume 24% of the world's energy.
Sadly, I fear that the "skeptics" are a large enough portion of the population that they will skew the politics away from any viable solution to the problems we face until it is too late. And let's not forget that society is greatly influenced by the media, which is controlled by the very Military Industrial Complex that stands to make the most profit by destroying our ecosystem.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/02/20122117544271875.html
@NorEastern, since you just graduated from kindergarten you still have no data with your false science. Why are you looking just at CO2 gases because that has been disproven for a while. So stop farting and maybe we can live a little be longer.
Enoch, nobody looks at just CO2 gasses, but CO2 remains the largest agent of current climate change. Please don't pretend you understand the science when you so obviously have no clue.
So Jock59801 where is your data. CO2 was at it highest level during the ice age proven by ice core samples. Now please talk some real science don't use your rear sphincter to communicate things.
"CO2 was at it highest level during the ice age"
No, it wasn't. Someone is lying to you.
There is nothing like an article about climate change to bring right wing boneheads out of the woodwork to display their ignorance and stupidity. Yes, right wing boneheads, you know much more about climate science than the climate scientists. You can go back to watching Fox News now.
And they so go away when presented with a scientific argument. They also must believe that the Earth was created in 7 days 10,000 years ago.
Can you prove it was not created in seven days!!! Again base on no evidence.
Enoch, we can prove the Earth is 4.55 billion years old. Perhaps it was created in 7 days then, but I doubt it.
Thanks Jock59801, Now you are talking science. If you can not prove it, it's all theory. Lets not waste all this time until real science is perform.
Enoch, the evidence is there. The fact that yuo are completely unaware of it is your problem, not ours.
enoch, funny how you call people dumb when ur a dumbass. just remember, thinking somebody is up there watching you and judging you right now is nothing more than a neurological disorder.
@ronpaul42012, You sound scare Brother!!!! Your neurological disorder is your excuse for being psychotic or delusional. You need to go back to congress to all of your psychotic members and get a life. I never us the terminology dumb ass. But you are a giant sphincter.
Ok jock59801, What Evidence??????????????? You have stated none!!!!
its ok enoch, obvious your lacking in the evolution process. maybe one day you will evolve to a higher species and understand everything for what it is, not what it was.
Enoch: Gravity's a theory. Wanna jump off a tall building to test it?
Who really cares?
George-388802,
No one with an IQ under 26, for sure, so you're covered for your apathy.
Oh thanks Mr Genius
My pleasure, happy to oblige! (And thanks for noticing!)