Hi all, There was probably a record minimum Arctic sea ice volume in 2008, despite having been a "surprisingly cool year" (see John's analysis below).
This shows that the Arctic region is only loosely coupled to the rest of the world's climate system, such that it can continue its dramatic warming trend while the rest is cooling a bit. Cheers, John From: John Davies Sent: 20 January 2009 18:07 To: [email protected] Cc: Fiona Davis Subject: GLOBAL TEMPERATURE DECEMBER 2008 AND 2008 Hello Campaigners, The global temperature figures for December have arrived from the Hadley Centre. The usual conventions apply. All the figures are positive and in degrees Celsius. They are the deviation from the 1961 - 90 global average. Simply add 0.09 to convert to temperatures above the global temperature up until 1976.. SST means Sea Surface Temperature south means Southern Hemisphere, North means Northern hemisphere. The most important figures are marked *. Dec. SST South 0.22* North 0.28* Globe 0.25 Land South 0.36* North 0.64* Globe 0.50 Land and SST South 0.22* North 0.39* Globe 0.31* 2008 combined Land and SST.0.31* My Comments. This was a surprisingly cool end to a surprisingly cool year. 2008 was the tenth warmest year on record and there was a significant gap between this year and 1997 which was the ninth warmest year on record. The nine warmest years on record were significantly warmer than 2008. However 2008 was warmer than any year on record prior to 1997 and so the ten warmest years on record have all been since 1997 and in the last 12 years. Since 2008 was the coolest year since 2000 it is also true that 7 of the 8 warmest years on record have been in the last 8 years. The coolness of 2008 has been largely caused by less heating from the sun as it has been at it's solar minimum. Greater solar heating is expected very soon probably in 2009. Additionally there was a La Nina event for part of the year which was also a cooling influence. There is also a weak La Nina event at the present time which is expected to continue for a few months. A much warmer year is forecast for 2009 and the median forecast from the |Hadley Centre is for a global temperature of 0.44 degrees Celsius above the 1961 - 90 global average temperature assuming that no very large volcano puts dust into the Stratosphere though I think this event quite likely. All the Best, John B Davies personal -- Support Friends of the Earth Friends of the Earth Limited - Company No 1012357 Friends of the Earth Trust - Company No 1533942 Registered Charity No 281681 Registered Office - 26 - 28 Underwood Street, London. N1 7JQ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
