If you can't stand the heat..
The top 10 normally refers to something popular, pleasant or in some way profitable. This time it’s the bad news. Since this millennium started, we have now had the 10 hottest years. Only 4 have failed to breach the records. Carbon dioxide concentrations naturally rose to the highest in the last 30 years in 2013, too. NOAA has recorded these facts for us, with politics and economists finally turning to the warm side as well.
With those CO2 figures, we are due for a century or two of continued warming. The struggle will be to contain that temperature to a 2oC. rise. Politically, those who thought previously we could manage our emissions regarded that aim as achievable. Now it is very unlikely. Here is NOAA's State of the Climate.
Warming oceans have, “hidden depths,” if you like. The warm water now storing heat below the surface waters is liable to cause future atmospheric temperatures to rocket. With Australia’s day temperatures breaking their records and the UK with a hottest September, only 1976 stands out with a below 20th century average temperature over the whole globe. There was a cold winter last year, but only in the US (the eastern bit.)
The final months of this year are not included in NOAAs annual September-fest of world climate figures. The awful truth is that 2014 will almost certainly set an annual record for heat. Of 9 months so far, 4 have been record breakers with most others contributing to the prospect for record warmth. Ocean temperatures can’t change quickly, leaving us to finish off the year in literally hot water! Last year’s report is also interesting, to compare the approaches in Remember November. Politicians and decision makers should pay much more attention this time around.
The El Niño Southern Oscillation is set to bring us that awesome harbinger of disaster, with estimates of a 60% chance of its warming presence by December this year. That means the intense flooding in Jammu and Kashmir and the terrible loss of Arctic ice (not as in the Antarctic) will simply be symptoms of worse to come. The droughts and flood, ice loss and giant cyclones (hurricanes) will be with us for a long time, and with a vengeance.
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