From the NOAA National Weather Service Office in Miami comes this year end report:
2010 South Florida Weather Year in Review
Coldest December on Record Concludes Year of Extremes
December 30th, 2010: Temperature and precipitation extremes marked the weather of 2010 across South Florida. A cool and wet January through March was followed by the hottest summer on record, and then concluded with the coldest December on record for the main climate sites in South Florida (details on the above mentioned periods will be included below).
Here are December 2010 temperature averages for select sites (through 7 AM Dec 30th):
* Location of observations for each location have moved since the first year of record, but are representative of the city for record keeping purposes.
** Present Miami Beach and Moore Haven temperature data may not be totally comparable to historical data due to difference in time of daily reports which causes double-reporting of low temperatures.
Complete statistics of the record cold December for all sites above (except Moore Haven) will be provided in Record Reports which will be issued early on Jan 1, 2011.
The main culprit behind the cold temperatures in December 2010 was the same one which caused the cold winter of 2009-2010; a strongly negative North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and Arctic Oscillation (AO). When these atmospheric oscillations are in the strong negative phase, they essentially “flip” the weather pattern across North America, with upper-level high pressure and relative warmth over Greenland and Northeastern Canada and upper-level low pressure and cold over the eastern Continental United States, including Florida (Figure 1). This pattern forces the jet stream to plunge south from northern Canada into the southeastern U.S., transporting Arctic air masses into Florida.
A pronounced shift in the ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) phase was noted in 2010, from a strong El Niño, or warm, phase to a borderline strong La Niña, or cold, phase. While this may appear at first glance to be a key contributor to the temperature extremes noted across South Florida during 2010, it is believed that it was the strongly negative NAO and AO, not the ENSO phase, which contributed to the cold temperatures in early and late 2010. A strongly phased NAO/AO operating on shorter time scales can override the longer-term ENSO phase.
As mentioned above, South Florida experienced its hottest summer on record in 2010 (with the exception of Naples which recorded its second hottest recorded summer). Despite the record hot summer, average yearly temperatures at the main climate sites will end up around 1 degree below normal, which will be the coolest calendar year since the early and mid 1980s, and among the top 10 on record (except for Miami). At secondary sites Miami Beach and Moore Haven, it was the coolest year on record (please note caveat below table).
Here are the 2010 temperature averages for the year for the primary climate sites through December 29:
** Present Miami Beach and Moore Haven temperature data may not be totally comparable to historical data due to difference in time of daily reports which causes double-reporting of low temperatures.
Some other interesting 2010 temperature statistics:
– Miami International Airport (MIA) observed 103 days of temperatures at or above 90 degrees, the 4th most on record. The average number of 90+ degree days per year is 51. MIA also had a record 45 days of low temperatures of 80 degrees or higher, besting the previous record of 39 set in 2009. The average number of 80+ degree low temperature days per year is 13. On the other end of the thermometer, MIA had 6 mornings with low temperatures below 40 degrees. This ties the 5th most number of sub-40 degree days on record. The average yearly number of sub-40 degree days is 2.
– Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport (FLL) observed 9 days of low temperatures below 40 degrees. This ties the 4th most number of sub-40 degree days on record. The average yearly number of sub-40 degree days is 3.
– Palm Beach International Airport (PBI) observed 106 days of temperatures at or above 90 degrees, the 8th most on record. The average number of 90+ degree days per year is 56. PBI also had a record 34 days of low temperatures of 80 degrees or higher, crushing the previous record of 17 set in 1900 and 2002. The average number of 80+ degree low temperature days per year is 6. On the other end of the thermometer, PBI had 18 mornings with low temperatures below 40 degrees. This easily breaks the previous record of 10 days set in 1920 and 1981. The average yearly number of sub-40 lows at PBI is 3. Six of the 18 days occurred in December, which breaks the previous monthly record for December of 5 set in 1962.
– Naples Regional Airport (APF) observed 125 days of temperatures at or above 90 degrees, the 12th most on record. The average number of 90+ degree days per year is 109. Naples also observed 13 days of low temperatures below 40 degrees. This ties the 5th most number of sub-40 degree days on record. The average yearly number of sub-40 degree days is 3. Eight of the 13 days occurred in December, which breaks the previous monthly record for December of 7 set in 1981.
Full report at NOAA/NWS here:
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/images/mfl/news/2010WxSummary.pdf
h/t to Joe D’Aleo
SEE ALSO:
USA record lows outpace record highs 19 to 1 this week
Update 1/1/11 1:11:11 PM: obligatory Drudge Link screen-cap for Posterity: great way to start 2011!
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Of course there is climate change, and big time. This is simply analogous to a star going supernova before it burns out; the cold before the warm.
Well, there you go! We now have proof that we are locked in the grip of global warming because we are now seeing record low temperatures.
As our global thirst for carbon fuels continues unabated, we are likely to see global temperatures warm to the point where we will see ice rinks in parks in Miami in the winter.
Today’s snow flurries in Phoenix are but another sign that the globe is heating at a furious pace. Citrus growers in Arizona are afraid the heat will turn their oranges into frozen balls of slush.
Remember … carbon fuel … doubleplus ungood.
Would be nice to reference the surfacestation.org rating for each of these sites to see how the UHI and area development has affected the temps.
Don’t fret. Those old temps will be adjusted lower in no-time, and they’ll get their records back! 😉
My comment was sarcastic–after all, I invented the term global moroning.
aha…manitoba has all the global warming.
more “heart-wrenching” comments at the link:
30 Dec: Vancouver Sun: Mike DeSouza: Heart-wrenching view of bears inspires execs to do better
WWF trip to northern Manitoba shows impact of climate change
“It’s such a heart-wrenching way to learn a very hard lesson about climate change,” said David Moran, director of public affairs and communications for Coca-Cola in Canada. “We’ve used the polar bear in our marketing material for over 80 years. So for us, the polar bear has a particularly warm place in our hearts.”
The trip was organized by conservation group WWFCanada under a theme of “seeing is believing.” Moran and other corporate executives on the trip said it was particularly shocking to see the mammals stranded by large waves coming into the shore in November.
“You know that they [polar bears] are virtually starving because they need the ice to hunt,” said Moran.
“Without the ice, they can’t properly feed themselves, and so it’s such a graphic way of saying how climate change is impacting everything around you, but more importantly, this unique Canadian icon.” …
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Heart+wrenching+view+bears+inspires+execs+better/4040079/story.html
I don’t know if this has been discussed here before but what does one think about this recent article about Dr James Overland of the NOAA/Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in the United States?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100611093710.htm
Let’s not forget South America’s cold temps in one of the hottest years on the record according to Dr. J. Hansen.
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/07/21/brazil.dead.penguins/index.html#fbid=IIUufT-MKyq&wom=false
http://en.mercopress.com/2010/08/05/snow-in-brazil-below-zero-celsius-in-the-river-plate-and-tropical-fish-frozen
http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/cold-snap-freezes-south-america-beaches-whitened-some-areas-experience-snow-for-the-first-time-in/blog-381855/
http://poleshift.ning.com/profiles/blogs/santa-catarina-brazil-cold-air?xg_source=activity
http://arcticsnap.com/index.php?id=74
http://www.brazzilmag.com/component/content/article/89-august-2010/12321-brazil-hasnt-seen-so-much-snow-in-a-decade.html
http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/chilly-in-chile-south-america-hit-by-freak-cold-snap/19583528
http://sify.com/news/cold-wave-kills-six-million-fish-in-bolivia-news-international-kielkdaieea.html
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/International/2010/08/05/S-America-having-bitter-winter-weather/UPI-90551281041164/
http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-12-australia-swaps-summer-christmas.html
Yeah, I’m waiting for the 2010 Fl. manatee cold death numbers. That was already a record in April for any year and way above the various averages.
This before or after GISS “adjustments”
I forgot the Mongolian cold slauter.
6 million head of cattle dead in brutal Mongolian winter
I forgot:
Wood For The Trees
http://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/uah/from:1998/to:2010/plot/rss/from:1998/to:2010/plot/hadcrut3gl/from:1998/to:2010
Among the datasets of UAH, RSS, GISS and HadCrut it looks like only GISS shows 2010 as the warmest year on the record. I remain to be corrected though.
http://tinyurl.com/ybvwog9
“A pronounced shift in the ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) phase was noted in 2010, from a strong El Niño, or warm, phase to a borderline strong La Niña, or cold, phase. While this may appear at first glance to be a key contributor to the temperature extremes noted across South Florida during 2010, it is believed that it was the strongly negative NAO and AO, not the ENSO phase, which contributed to the cold temperatures in early and late 2010. A strongly phased NAO/AO operating on shorter time scales can override the longer-term ENSO phase.”
Although the above is true there does seem to be a longer term NAO/AO cycling over multidecadal and centennial timescales and correlating with solar variability such as that seen from LIA to the Modern Maximum.
In the recent and ongoing instance there has been a sudden and dramatic change in solar variability over the last few years which may well have induced the exceptionally negative NAO/AO that we now have.
In fact the NAO/AO signal began to weaken as long ago as 2000 when I first noted that the late 20th century tendency towards a more positive AO had appeared to have stopped with signs of a reversal. That diagnosis was on the basis that from 2000 the jets across UK were no longer taking quite such a poleward track in both winter and summer. That process slowly developed and has been more noticeable since 2005 and quite dramatic for the last couple of years.
It is also likely that the sudden change in solar behaviour is part of the longer term solar cycling indicating that the Modern Maximum is well and truly over unless we see a resumption of active solar cycles soon.
If it is part of the longer term solar cycling then we may have to get used to more negative NAO/AO than we have been used to for quite some time.
The interesting question (amongst many) is whether the more equatorward/meridional jets are themselves capable of altering global cloudiness and albedo so as to reduce solar shortwave into the oceans and thereby skew the balance between El Nino and La Nina in favour of the latter.
This I can testify….
I planted tomato seeds three months ago – over 90 days – I should be eating tomatoes right now….
…the plants are only about 6 inch tall, it’s been too cold for them to grow
Rest of the week in the high 70’s, another front is heading down though……
Here is sea ice concenttration in one of the hottest years on the record which bodes badly for next year.
http://home.comcast.net/~ewerme/wuwt/cryo_compare.jpg
While Arctic temperatures are rising towards hot.
http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/plots/meanTarchive/meanT_2010.png
Some more “so cold it’s gonna get hot” silliness:
“Climate change will be causing more snow squalls in Huron and Perth counties and across southwestern Ontario not fewer, says Geoff Peach, of the Lake Huron Centre for Coastal Conservation in Goderich.”
http://www.stratfordbeaconherald.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2910455
Heat wave = global warming.
Cold wave = weather.
Finally let’s not forget:
June 4, 1999
“Warm Winters Result From Greenhouse Effect, Columbia Scientists Find, Using NASA Model”
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/06/990604081638.htm
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v399/n6735/abs/399452a0.html
March 2000
“Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past”
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/snowfalls-are-now-just-a-thing-of-the-past-724017.html
—————————
Nov. 17, 2010
“Global Warming Could Cool Down Northern Temperatures in Winter”
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101117114028.htm
http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2009JD013568
December 2010
“Expect more extreme winters thanks to global warming, say scientists”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/expect-more-extreme-winters-thanks-to-global-warming-say-scientists-2168418.html
A pronounced shift in the ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) phase was noted in 2010, from a strong El Niño, or warm, phase to a borderline strong La Niña, or cold, phase.
———
the NASA weather guys were speculating that the unusual El Niño/NAO coincidence was a major factor in last year’s USA cold snap. Now we have La Nina it looks like that explanation is a bit lame.
DD More says:
December 30, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Would be nice to reference the surfacestation.org rating for each of these sites to see how the UHI and area development has affected the temps.
Yes easy to get record high including UHI, but record low including UHI that must have been low.
Well this is just weather. Another thirty years of this and it will be climate.
But it is interesting to wonder if it is a change in the system; or still just in the normal range of natural variability.
Well those 150 year storms do seem to come alng about every five years or so.
I’m going to bed now. I hope others can give some info on the cold temps. in the other areas of the southern hemisphere in 2010 to counter Hansen’s crap. Australia? SE Asia?
Every time I see this “warmest summer on record” stuff I just laugh. We on the prairies suffered through one of the coldest summers in recent memory, just barely edging out 92’s Pinatubo weather.
Yeah, the whole “warming” farce is a hard sell in the areas that didn’t see much warm.
Since this is about changes from “normal” I was recently thinking about “Anomalies” meaning differences between what things really are, and what they are supposed to be.
So here’s a question. I have this owl box station; just like all the ones on Anthony’s rogues gallery list; but hopefully mine comes without the Webster grill, and no parking lot.
Now each and every day of the year; the conditions of my OBS change; if only because the earth moved around the sun a bit from yesterday, and it will be in a different place tomorrow.
So actually the real “supposed to be conditions” change each and every day of the year, so I really should have a “supposed to be” Temperature number for my station that changes each and every day.
So I should record my Temperatures every day from 1960 through 1990, to give me 30 years of “supposed to be” baseline Temperatures for each day of the year; so I avberage those 30 years of numbers for July-4 1960-1990 to give me the “Supposeed to be Temperature for each calendar day of the year, and then I should use THAT daily number to subtract from my “really is” number for whatever day, to get the real “anomaly” for each day.
So my OB station should have a list of 366 “supposed to be” daily temperatures for me to use as my base line period data to determine my true anomalies.
Doesn’t seem fair to compare a July-4th Current Temperature at my station with a baseline number that has a Dec 30th affected baseline; so I thing a single baseline Tempoerature for the whole 30 years ought to be outlawed, and anomalies should be measured correctly. The earth’s passage around the sun is not an anomaly; it is part of the natural vaiability of the earth’s position in space.
“NOAA on Miami Florida: Coldest December on Record”
In other places, we are ominously told of how the CO2 is at the highest level in 800,000 years. So exactly what would be different if we had drastically cut our CO2 emissions at a huge expense and the CO2 was 30 ppm lower?