2004 Was Fourth-Warmest Year Ever Recorded

The New York Times ^ | February 10, 2005 | ANDREW C. REVKIN

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Last year was the fourth warmest since systematic temperature measurements began around the world in the 19th century, NASA scientists said yesterday.

Particularly high temperatures were measured over Alaska, the Caspian Sea region of Europe and the Antarctic Peninsula, while the United States was unusually cool. But the global average continued a 30-year rise that is "due primarily to increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere," said Dr. James E. Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, in Manhattan.

The main source of such gases is smokestack and tailpipe emissions from burning coal and oil.

The highest global average was measured in 1998, when temperatures were raised by a strong cycle of El Niño in the Pacific Ocean; 2002 and 2003 were second and third warmest.........

[Cincinatus' Wife]

.....2002 and 2003 were second and third warmest.........

Well, then it's moving back in the other direction.

[teaker]

If you read the article link on the Drudge Report, it also stresses the point that nature is a root cause of the top 3 hottest years. Also, does anyone find it odd that North American averages are cooler, when the world blames the US for global warming?

[bill1952]

Well, they have to blame us since they expect every American to PAY the rest of the world for it.

[sure_fine]

in southeast PA here, we must be setting a new one this year too, but the heat bills are still going up

[NautiNurse]

ast year was the fourth warmest since systematic temperature measurements began around the world in the 19th century, NASA scientists said yesterday.

Particularly high temperatures were measured over Alaska, the Caspian Sea region of Europe and the Antarctic Peninsula, while the United States was unusually cool. But the global average continued a 30-year rise that is "due primarily to increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere," said Dr. James E. Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, in Manhattan.

The main source of such gases is smokestack and tailpipe emissions from burning coal and oil.

The highest global average was measured in 1998, when temperatures were raised by a strong cycle of El Niño in the Pacific Ocean; 2002 and 2003 were second and third warmest.

Dr. Hansen said a weak Niño pattern was likely to make 2005 at least the second warmest year and could push it beyond 1998 and set a record.

The unusual nature of the recent warming was corroborated separately yesterday by a new analysis of 2,000 years of indirect temperature records in tree rings, stalagmites, seabed layers, and other evidence from around the Northern Hemisphere.

That study, published in the journal Nature, found that previous peaks of warming, particularly during medieval times about 1,000 years ago, were as warm as the 20th-century average but that no spikes in the last 2,000 years matched the warming since 1990.

It is one of several recent studies challenging a longstanding view that temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere were relatively unvarying until the recent warming, a pattern enshrined in a graph scientists have taken to calling the hockey stick for its long horizontal "shaft" and upward-hooking "blade."

The lead author of the new paper, Anders Moberg of Stockholm University in Sweden, said it was important to recognize that natural influences on climate could either amplify or mask human-caused warming in years to come.

But his paper "should not be a fuel for greenhouse skeptics in their arguments," Mr. Moberg said, adding that there were ample signs that the warming was now outside nature's recent bounds.

[Dallas59]

All we all gonna die?

[Angry Enough]

I'ts all North America's fault.

[oh8eleven]

2004 Was Fourth-Warmest Year Ever Recorded
Not in western NY - it was closer to being one of coldest.

[anniegetyourgun]

We're all gonna die.

[sgtbono2002]

Dr, Hansen should shove his theory up his tailpipe.

[Nataku X]

Remember when Gore came out to rail against global warming on a record cold day?

It seems much warmer this year in WNY, thank goodness!

[Dark Knight]

But the global average continued a 30-year rise that is "due primarily to increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere," said Dr. James E. Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, in Manhattan.

The main source of such gases is smokestack and tailpipe emissions from burning coal and oil. <<

Dr. James Hansen should pay me to edit his stuff. If we have warmer temps then water vapor is the biggest green house gas increase. Nature dwarfs man.

DK

[MisterRepublican]

"Sky Is Falling, Bush To Blame."

[IC Ken]

Good! The rumors of a coming ice age are false.

[John O]

Dr. James Hansen should pay me to edit his stuff. If we have warmer temps then water vapor is the biggest green house gas increase. Nature dwarfs man.

Warmer temps ---> Higher rates of evaporation --> More clouds --> less sunlight reaches earth and more is reflected into space --> cooler temperatures.

Seems that we have a self regulating system here. (Personally I give God the credit for it but you can believe what you want)

[Strutt9]

Nor in NH. It was one of the coldest as well.

[mewzilla]

Last year was the fourth warmest since systematic temperature measurements began around the world in the 19th century, NASA scientists said yesterday.

Ooooh, the 19th century...

And the Earth is how old...?

[7.62 x 51mm]

It was the coolest and wettest that I remember of the past 15 I've been in the nursery-garden center business.

[KSCITYBOY]

2004 was the coldest I've ever seen in KC, so the must be putting thermometer someplace else.

[ProudVet77]

public-inquiries@hq.nasa.gov