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Subscribe to RSSLast year was one for the history books, as a long-term warming trend brought two record highs for each record low between 2000 and 2010. And even more concerning, in the past year there were five record highs for each low recorded. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.
If you found yourself bundling up in scarves, hats, and long underwear less than usual last year, you weren't alone: 2012 was the warmest year on record in the contiguous United States, according to scientists with The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The average temperature for 2012 was 55.3 degrees Fahrenheit, 3.2 degrees above normal and a full degree higher than the previous warmest year recorded -- 1998 -- NOAA said in its report Tuesday. All 48 states in the contiguous U.S. had above-average annual temperatures last year, including 19 that broke annual records, from Connecticut through Utah.
“We’re taking quite a large step,” said Jake Crouch, a climate scientist from the NOAA National Climatic Data Center, which has recorded temperatures in the contiguous U.S. for the past 118 years.
It was also a historic year for "extreme" weather, scientists with the federal agency said. With 11 disasters that surpassed $1 billion in losses, including Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Isaac, and tornadoes across the Great Plains, Texas, and the Southeast and Ohio Valley, NOAA said 2012 was second only to 1998 in the agency's "extreme" weather index.
A long-term warming trend for the U.S., combined with drought and a northerly jet stream, led to the record heat, explained Crouch.
"During the winter season, the jet stream tended to stay further north of the U.S.-Canadian border, so that limited colder outbreaks in the country. It also limited precipitation. So that led to a warm and dry winter season, and that persisted through the spring," he said.
Matt Rourke / AP file
People play in water from an open fire hydrant during the afternoon heat on July 18, 2012, in Philadelphia. July was the hottest month ever on record in the contiguous U.S.
"That warm and dry spring and winter laid the groundwork for the drought we had this summer... . When we have drought, it tends to drive daytime temperatures upward."
The unprecedented warm weather wasn't contained to the United States.
A corresponding rise in global temperatures prompted the World Meteorological Organization to call the rate at which the Arctic sea ice was melting "alarming" in its Nov. 28, 2012, report.
“The extent of Arctic sea ice reached a new record low. The alarming rate of its melt this year highlighted the far-reaching changes taking place on Earth’s oceans and biosphere. Climate change is taking place before our eyes and will continue to do so as a result of the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which have risen constantly and again reached new records,” World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said.
Each year since 2001 has been among the warmest on record worldwide, with 2012 likely to "be no exception despite the cooling influence of La Niña early in the year," the report added.
'Horrible' sea level rise of more than 3 feet plausible by 2100, experts say
Watch NBC's special coverage of the 2012 drought
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NOAA expects to have global data for 2012 sometime in the coming weeks, but Crouch said scientists already know with certainty "it's going to be in the top ten" warmest years ever.
Adding to the extremes: 2012 was the driest year on record for the U.S., with 26.57 inches of average precipitation -- 2.57 inches below average. Those dry conditions created an ideal environment for wildfires in the West, which charred 9.2 million acres -- the third highest amount ever recorded, NOAA said Tuesday.
Other notable climate activity from 2012:
- Snowpack totals across the Central and Southern Rockies were less than half normal.
- July was the hottest month ever on record in the contiguous U.S.
- Tornado activity was concentrated toward the beginning of the season, with large outbreaks in March and April in the Ohio Valley and Central Plains, but the final 2012 tornado count will likely be less than 1,000 -- the least since 2002. "The factors behind that are kind of related to what was going on with the drought. We didn't have these large storm systems moving through the country, so that limited precipitation, and that also limited severe weather outbreaks," Crouch said. What made this year so high on the extreme weather index were cyclones, hurricanes, and the heat, he said.
- Alaska was cooler and slightly wetter than average, and had a record-cold January. "Their January temperatures were 14 degrees below average. Many locations in Alaska had temperatures 30 degrees below zero," Crouch said, adding that Anchorage, Alaska, set a new snow record.
- Hawaii experienced growing drought conditions, with 47.4 percent of the state experiencing moderate-to-exceptional drought at the beginning of 2012 and 63.3 percent at the end of the year. Alaska and Hawaii were not included in the bulk of NOAA's 2012 report because of terrain issues, and because scientists don't have records dating back as far as states in the contiguous U.S.
While NOAA made no meteorological forecasts for 2013, Crouch said the drought was going to continue to be an issue.
"The drought got a lot of attention this summer when it was having impacts on agriculture. More than 60 percent of the country is still in drought," he said. "And if things don't change, the drought is going to continue to be a big story in 2013."
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According to comprehensive satellite measurements (ref. Roy Spencer and John Christy), 2012 was the ninth warmest year since the satellite record began 34 years ago. It was the warmest year for the continental US (Alaska included). No doubt alarmists will proclaim that this is proof of human caused global warming. However, the US comprises less than 2% of the earth’s surface, hardly global.
And you explain 11 1+ billion dollar disasters worldwide in a single year how? How are the people that see the writing on the wall 'alarmists'?
If I sit here screaming that aliens are going to attack us, that zombies will rise and consume us or that God will flood the Earth, THAT is being alarmist. If I claim that humanity is accelerating a natural cycle to a point that evolution cannot keep up, that is stating what is blatantly obvious.
That's easy to explain. Humans are building way too much expensive crap in the path of hurricanes.
I had to laugh at the defintion of "extreme" myself. So the Tornado that took out Witchita was not extreme ($283M), but the one that got Joplin was (>$1B).
Just based on inflation, we can expect to see the number of "extreme" phenomena to increase - See I told you it was AGW!!
Gabe-
So the past hurricanes that moved tons of sand farther inland than the most recent ones were less powerful just because there were no people or houses etc. to be destroyed in their path?
$$ damage is not an indicator of natural disaster power, because people continue to build in the historical paths of hurricanes/tornadoes/volcanic eruptions/earthquakes/mudslides/take your pick.
Also, just today, the UK Met Office, a world leader in providing weather and climate services, revised it's warming forecasts downward to the point that "If the forecast is accurate, the result would be that the global average temperature would have remained relatively static for about two decades."
In short, if the new models hold, the WORLD AS A WHOLE HAS NOT APPRECIABLY WARMED in the last 20 years. This takes a lot of the "hot air" out of the alarmist's claims . . . see: bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20947224
What the hell is the "World Metorological Association"? Holy Death Star, Vader! Funny, we have seen liberals like Hitler and Stalin before and we just don't learn...It's coming to a head, people. The liberals are going for it-one world government. No wonder the liberals want gun control...they need to disarm us to put us into camps! Obama is a Trojan Horse.
It's been almost 10 years since Algore said the world would end in 10 years...
Bug,
If you realy, truly, in-your-heart believe Hitler & Stalin were in any way "liberals", you are truly psychotic. They were the quintessencial conservative fascists.
All dependent on how you arrive at the the terminology.
Collectivism is generally accepted as liberal and both Hitler and Stalin preached the virtue of the social collective.
Sorry musician,
Nazi= National Socialist Party
Socialism= Today's lefties
And we all know that libies love communism (Stalin)
Strange, I link to climatedepot dot com and it keeps getting edited out. Free flow of information as long as it is political correct.
I believe global warming is a real threat. The science behind it is sound. What I don't believe is the people out there who think turning off lights, or buying energy efficient bulbs, or clothing made of bamboo fiber, or driving hybrid cars is really going to fix the problem. It isn't. Not even close. You'd have to STOP the increased CO2 emissions right now to stop the warming and let the Earth reverse the trend by absorbing the CO2 in the oceans and in plant matter...and that will take thousands of years for the Earth to do. Man has been increasing CO2 since the Industrial Revolution. Our giant leaps in technology were made possible by all that CO2 emission.
And how are you going to get China and India and Indonesia and all those other emerging industrial nations to agree...you won't, no matter what you think.
And, naturally, NEITHER party in the U.S. is willing to do anything to curb CO2 emissions. Any action taken on global warming will affect the economy, and no politician is willing to do that. That's how they lose their job.
So, in summary, no matter what you believe, or how much you want to do about what you believe, the status quo is the only thing you have to look forward to. The rest of the discussion is quite frankly a waste of time...
So relax & enjoy extinction?
Tim, sadly I fear you are correct. How are we supposed to take seriously claims that the auto industry must have cars that can get 40mg or whatever it is by 2020? Look at the damage we have already done. Look at what will do between now and 2020. Suppose we could make every car currently running get 40 mpg,it wouldnot help. Where is there any intelligence,any heart?Are we all as calloused as Romney,scarecrows with no brains, tinmen with no hearts?
All these problems - climate change, oceans getting fished out, animals going extinct, water shortages - have one thing in common. There's just too many people. 7 billion and climbing... at an accelerating rate too.
The "green revolution" of the 50s (using chemical fertilizers) is where this all started.
ANALZYE & ADAPT!
I was going to say let's not jump to conclusions just because some scientests tell us this is the evidence they have been collecting after decades of observation and careful measurement, that what's impotant are the OPINIONS of Limbaugh, Palin and BAchmann,but I see that that wise trio have enough minds from the same genetic pool speaking for them on here ,so that they can just collect their checks without having to say anything. I remind everyone, MY CONGRESSMAN, PAUL BROUN, says evolution and global warming "theories" are the work of Satan. May I also remind you he sits on the SCIENCE COMMITTEE in Washington. And we wonder why our government is broken!!!
Do you know what killed the dinosaurs? An asteroid? Good theory, but that was at best an indirect cause, & only affected the last batch of dinosaurs. No, I mean all of the now extinct species. Do you know what killed them? It's the same thing every time - changes in their environment. Every one, no exceptions.
Humanity has no special pleading. Pollution, habitat destruction, extinctions aren't crimes against birds or beasts, they threaten us. They are crimes against humanity, & should be prosecuted & punished as such.
Why is there a difference between threatening to put 6 ounces of poison in your water, & actually putting 6 millions tons of toxins into your air? Why is one "terrorism", & the other "good for business"?
Because you as a consumer pay for it.
Wanton pollution should be punished when found no arguement, but we could also go back to eating bushes and dying before we reach 35 from some major disease, starvation, or some predator eating us and the air would be cleaner for ya.
Musician -
And you type on your keyboard made from petroleum products. If you didn't make it yourself, any musical instrument you own caused some form of polution in the manufacture.
So, you; too, are responsible for the crimes against humanity, and should be prosecuted and punished.
Please turn yourself in to the EPA immediately.
Here we go again...
Instead of polluting and paving over and hurting the environment, we need to start being good stewards of the planet, how is that a bad thing for future generations?
People over greed and the bottom line! Your grand-kids will thank you when they are still able to breath in 30 years! LOL
What makes you think that we matter to the life cycle of the earth? We are stewards of nothing but or own existence.
Earth was before and it will be after, the period she is "steward" to the human race is coming to an end. Mankind's downfall is that it thinks too highly of itself and its position in the universe.
Oh really, warmer than the dust bowl years? Liars
Manmade global warming via burning of fossil fuels is real. If you deny that you must still quesion the science linking smoking and lung cancer...after all, some tobacco paid scientists questioned the link back in the 1950s just like some oil company paid scientists are trying to question the link between global warming and man made activity via fossil fuel burning.
"2012 was hottest year ever." Wrong!
2012 was the hottest year we know of since we've been keeping track.
There were many many, years hotter since man walked the earth.
olde yankee,you were trying tomake a point??????????????????
When all the believers stop using all forms of fossil fuel and everything made from petroleum (just about everything not made of metal) I will become a believer. They could start by saving the energy (fossil fuel) their computers are burning.
Yep.
ManBearPig lives!!!!
I believe you will find the global average temperature was the 9th or 10th highest. And some places on the Earth, China, experienced unprecedented cold temperatures.
The Democrats have the lame stream media and the Republicans have their Faux News. Neither one of which knows their rear from a hole in the ground.
There is much evidence from the past that shows the earth goes though cycles of drought to wet periods. Ask any geologist about these cycles. It has happened hundreds possibly thousands of times. Back in the 80s they said we were headed for another ice age. There was a article on NBC today about a ancient sea monster that swam where Utah is now. It was wet and much of North America was covered in water. There is also proof of droughts. This is just the cycle of the earth and will continue to happen.
The temperature of the earth with continue to change. Look at the evidence.
Whether you believe in global warming or not......take care of mother earth -it's the only one we got.
This. Even if there is no global warming (and there is - I trust the scientific community over internet crackpots and right wing think tanks) why would you not want to reduce pollution, embrace alternative energy, etc? It's a win win!
OK so it was hot last year...now what...maybe liberals want to ban the sun...if a liberal was given a ton of gold they'd be bitching that the gold was too heavy...
Please post no value on all denier posts that say something like "It's a cycle...It's been going on since the creation of the planet". If they had a couple of neurons fire off they would figure out the the science community has already taken that into consideration.
Yeah that's the kind of silly denialist comment I expected. Voted yourself up as well. Lame.
Here's a fact noone wants to face, petroleum is our best source of lubricants & plastics. Burning it is short sighted at best, idiotic is more accurate.
So why do we do it? Because we have to go farther & faster than anybody else anywhere in the world at anytime in history. It's been over 100 years since American college students established the norms for human preception. One of the corollaries of their work is the average human can't safely operate a vehicle going faster than 40 MPH. That's an average, so for every Dale Earnhardt, there's someone out there who can't push a grocery cart without risking fatal consequences.
For those of you who doubt, please note that nearly 40,000 people are killed on the highways every year (every year), & another 2.5 millionare injured. And that's just your fellow Americans. We are already going to far, & at speeds the majority can't handle. For absolute proof, just look around you on your way home tonight.
Give it up! Think slower speeds, & shorter distances, & we won't need to burn petroleum.
lol
Musician-You might want to concentrate on playing the flute some more and "pondering" MPH a little less. Besides, you probably ride a bike and live in one of our cesspool, liberal cities.
You want your laugh for the day? The oil might not run out, but it will get expensive. We're already squeezing it out of sand, & planning to crush it out of rocks. So what happens when it gets too expensive to lubricate your firearms? For 2nd Amendment enthusiasts I mean? You going to fire that gun dry?
Yes, I do, I ride a bike. Live in the 'burbs though. But yes, I commute, run errands, & do light shopping at the handlebars. Figure a way to carry a 4' X 8' plywood sheet on a windy day, & I'll give up driving altogether.
And do you know what I do when I cruise past a gas station? I wave! Not my whole hand to be sure, but they get the message.
Musician: Do you use electricity? Since you are using the internet I would say yes. Stay off of the internet to save mother earth. Electricity comes from coal in case you didn't know. Quit using electricity and gas to heat your house in the winter and don't oil your bike chain.
You are a hypocrite!!
Yep. Slow down, give it up and don't burn petroleum.
Of course those groceries were trucked and shipped (very few square-riggers left) so you could bike down and pick them up. I guess you figure someone walked that bicycle you ride to the store where you bought it from the place of manufacture.
Simplistic solutions to complex problems are so amusing!
The Greenies had a commercial on a few years ago that was a
joke to me. It showed a tree hugging a house and thanking the house because the
house was putting out less energy, less carbon. But trees need carbon I think
the tree was squeezing the house trying to get carbon out of the house so the
tree could live.
I don't believe trees need humans to burn fossil fuel for survive.
no kidding but who ever wrote that comerical was not thinking, a tree would not be thanking us for producing less carbon
Actually trees can only handle so much carbon in the air to function correctly
The earth may be warming. Nothing we can do about it. Shut the fruck up and put on your sunscreen.
Thanks, Lenny. You are right 100%.
Is your attitude about extinction the same as for rape? Relax & enjoy it?
Yes. Yes it is. Because rape and the global warming debate make such in excellent analogy.
Where did extinction come from?
Come on now...the tea holes and republican'ts say global warming is all a myth ....who am I supposed to believe???? Think I'll take the scientists side on this one.
And we see "Most Extreme" elevated to a scientific concept instead of moron street talk.
Here's extreme: The Earth was once a molten ball of iron and nickel. How's that for extreme? There have been whole millions of years with 1/3 the surface of the earth sheathed in ice. xxxxtreme.
Any climatic conditions falling between those two extremes are business as usual on planet earth. The climate/temperature varies up and down, and has done so since billions of years before humans. "Hottest year" only goes back about 150 years of accurate temperature recording. Back beyond 150 years, and you have no idea what you are talking about.
The Greenies had a commercial on a few years ago that was a joke to me. It showed a tree hugging a house and thanking the house because the house was putting out less energy, less carbon. But trees need carbon I think the tree was squeezing the house trying to get carbon out of the house so the tree could live.
2012, second warmest year on record. That must mean that global warming does not exist. When we've had cooler than average the faux scientists proclaim it as proof of global warming, now warmer than normal proves the same thing.
About those rising ocean levels. It is perfectly natural, and predictable. It is due primarily to one thing that no one ever talks about, erosion. Wind erosion, rain erosion, snow melt erosion, river current erosion, all send materials above sea level into the sea.
The truth is, that barring seismic upheavals, water will once again cover the entire surface of the earth because of erosion.
Well, best be prepared for the looming disaster that will result from the Earth's atomosperic changes whatever the cause. Hang on to your AR-15s as long as you can! You might need them.
Yes, because the Zombie apocalypse is coming.
Hey Patriot,
How you going to lube that AR15 when oil costs $50 per drop? Going to fire it dry?
Used to use silicone to lubricate my Machine gun; worked pretty well and didn't burn off as ast as oil based lube. Also, in didn't attract dust and dirt like oil does.
Musician doesn't know much about firearms, but it sounds cool.