NOAA: April warm, dry over much of nation; second-warmest April since 1880 globally

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ^ | May 16, 2002

[88keys]

It snowed in Cleveland O. yesterday...and (surprise, surprise!) that's a new record! Plus we've had lots of rain, and it's been very cold for May, including frost warnings...it's bad for Ohio farmers, and it's been strange weather, but it's not been "global warming", for sure!

[canuckwest]

This spring in Alberta has been so cold that we had to kick start the wolves until last week. Still lots of snow and ice in the lower mountain elevations and the skiing is excellent. This report is rubbish.

[HardStarboard]

It was just reported on NPR (I listen during adverts on my Seattle KVI conservative radio station) that the east coast and the Carolina's are experiencing unusually cold weather due to an unseasonably cold Canadian air mass.

Hey you eco-climatological freeks, the weather changes from time to time. Go back and diddle with your flawed computer models some more!

[Free the USA]

Check the Bump List folders for articles related to and descriptions of the above topic(s) or for other topics of interest.

[Crusher138]

I had a pool built last October, just in time for it to start getting cool here in South Florida.

I couldn't wait for Spring. My pool guy told me that we should have 85 degree water by mid-March. We didn't get that warm until the end of April. The days are warm enough, but the nights, which are usually mid to upper 70's at that time, were in the upper 60's to lower 70's. That cooled off the pool and limited the moon light swims!

Just a couple of nights ago was it finally really warm enough at night to swim comfortably.

Do you think that if we had a nation wide "cooler than normal" period of time, they would tell us?

[smithson]

"Second-Warmest April since 1880."

So they must of had Global Warming problems in the year 1880 also.

[Cicero]

We had a mild winter in Vermont, but the whole month of May has been wet and freezing.

[cogitator]

It's interesting that they use 1880 as the starting point for their caculation of the average mean temperature. The ereption in 1883 caused the year without a summer and significently lowered global temps for a couple of years. I wonder how big a difference there would have been if they has used say 1902 as a starting point and measured the last century.

Minor correction: the "year without a summer" was 1816, due to the eruption of Tambora in Indonesia. Krakatoa was 1883. Krakatoa definitely caused cooling, but not nearly as much as Tambora.

[cogitator]

When Vikings were growing grapes in New Brunswick Canada (aka Vinland. I'm guessing the avg temps were much higher than were're seeing now.

The estimate for the Medieval Warm Period is about 2 degrees C warmer in the Northern Hemisphere. Though there are detectable MWP signals in the Southern Hemisphere, it doesn't appear to have been as strong. But that assessment could change with more data because there are more available data sources in the Northern Hemisphere.

[cogitator]

So they must of had Global Warming problems in the year 1880 also.

So many people misinterpret what that means (so I'm not singling you out). It means that in the entire record from 1880-present, this is the second-warmest April ever recorded. It doesn't mean that 1880 was the warmest, it means that's when the record started. The warmest April was probably either April 1998 (when the big El Nino was still going strong), or in the "Dust Bowl" 1930s, the previous warmest period in the record.

[BluH2o]

Living in the U.S. midwest I'm of the opinion April & May reversed themselves this year. May has been damp and cold, April dryer and warmer. Returned from southern Spain last week, The Costa del Sol had some of the coolest, wet windy weather (30 knots with higher gusts for several days) for May in memory. The higher elevations of the Sierra Nevadas (southern Spain) had snow, visible from the Mediterranean coast.

[cogitator]

Do you think that if we had a nation wide "cooler than normal" period of time, they would tell us?

Yes.

Climate of 2000: November: U.S. National Analysis

"The November 2000 monthly mean temperature averaged across the contiguous United States, based on data from the U.S. Historical Climate Network (USHCN) and preliminary data from the Climate Division Database, ranked as the second coolest November since records began in 1895. The preliminary nationally averaged temperature for November 2000 was 38.7° F, 3.8° F below the long-term mean. The actual November temperature values from 1895 through 2000 are available. November 1999, just last year, was the warmest such month on record."

(Just as an aside, it took me awhile to find this example. Most of the months over the past couple of years have been warmer than average).

[cogitator]

My hunch was right; see reply 30. The warmest April in the record was April 1998.

[phalynx]

It gets worse. I used to work for TV. It was explained to me that the NOAA was removing and "revising" historical data to make a more accurate history. The TV station I worked for had the actuall NOAA measurements back from the early 60's to date. It was interesting, to say the least, to compare the data after they had changed it...........

[cogitator]

I vote for global warming.

Out of curiousity, how much snow did you get this year? And how many days were the natural ice rinks skate-able?

I grew up in central Wisconsin, and according to my friends, this was an abysmal winter for winter sports. I know that here in Maryland we had hardly any snow at all.

[FreeTheHostages]

Global warming is, as a matter of scientific fact, occurring. It's a controversy what causes it. It's a controversy what to do about it. But that it exists, that's just a scientific issue, not a political one. I'm a big fan of not mixing the two. Personally, I think the scientific literature on global warming does establish a strong likelihood that carbon dioxide omissions are strongly contributing to the warming trend. Whether there may be other contributors (such as naturally occuring cycles that occur on the decade or century scale) is unknown. But none of that answers the question of how serious the warming is or what we should do about it. That is, surely, a political issue.

[dead]

Well I don't know about where you live, but I'd prefer at least a bit of ice and snow in the winter.

We had very little of it where I live this year.

But we had huge snowfall the year before that.

It’s called weather, and the government has nothing to do with controlling it. (that’s the job of the sleestacks and their crystals)

[raygun]

Here in Detroit, according to PRELIMINARY LOCAL CLIMATOLOGICAL DATA (WS FORM: F-6), the average monthly temperature has been 51.3 Deg. F. (6.5 Deg. F. below normal). Moreover there have so far been 270 heating degree days (heating degrees are the total number of degrees that the average temperature was below 65 Deg. F.), this is 83 more heating degree days than normal. The seasonal total of heating degree days thus far is 5496 (979 heating degree days below normal). Clearly May has been somewhat cooler than normal, but the entire season has not been as cool as normal. Furthermore, no cooling degree days have been logged for May so far (19 cooling degree days less than normal), and the 30 cooling degree days logged thusfar for the season are 5 more than normal.

Let me know where you live, I'll supply objective information pertaining to how cool it has not really been contrary to your feelings.

I've been trained as a weather specialist and that requires dealing with scientific facts, feelings and opinions that matter more than the facts do to a liberal.

[jpl]

They won't run the numbers for the month of May, for the simple reason that's it's been freezing in the northeast the last several days, and everyone knows it.

[smithson]

I stand corrected.