One of the great things about our current state of technology is the nearly instant reporting we can get from remote sensing platforms. Thanks to Dr. Roy Spencer & Dr. Danny Braswell, GHCC at the University of Alabama, Hunsville, we can watch global temperatures of the lower troposphere in near real-time at this page:
http://discover.itsc.uah.edu/amsutemps/
According to UAH: Daily averaged temperatures of the Earth are measured by the AMSU flying on the NOAA-15 satellite. The satellite passes over most points on the Earth twice per day, at about 7:30 am and 7:30 pm local time. The AMSU measures the average temperature of the atmosphere in different layers from the surface up to about 135,000 feet or 41 kilometers. During global warming, the atmosphere near the surface is supposed to warm at least as fast as the surface warms, while the upper layers are supposed to cool much faster than the surface warms.
But as I understand it, the lower troposphere is supposed to be closely coupled to CO2 induced forcings. As we’ve seen from comparison to surface data sets such as HadCRUT, the UAH MSU lower troposphere tracks fairly well with surface temps.
You can learn more about how the Advanced Microwave Sounder Unit on NOAA-15 works and what coverage it has here at my post on it the instrument.
According to the UAH data For 2008, we are averaging about .4 to .5 degrees C cooler than last year. See the graph and click it for a larger one:
Click for larger graph
This tracks with some of the anecdotal eveidence we’ve been seeing in the weather in the northen hemisphere this spring, with late snowfalls, late frosts, and below normal temperatures. The northern latitude areas such as Canada have been very slow to have a spring season.
There is no error whatsoever.
Drs. Christy and Braswell created a robust, near real-time, highly dynamic and widely published graph for our convenience. As if that weren’t enough, they also (apparently manually) add a text box to the graph daily to help readers understand what they’re being shown.
And then someone comes along and complains that the (manual) text box is in Fahrenheit while the y-axis is in “degrees Celcius” [sic].
This shallow-thinking reminds me of when I would perform advanced calculations in Excel, but would have to use “precision as displayed” because invariably some yahoo whose only expertise is the ability to add numbers would complain.
That and that the Yankees are on ice.
Tom: The real test will be August/September. If the Cubs survive that, we can count on another ice age. Possibly the end of life on Earth.
As Ernie Banks said, “Any team can have a bad century.”
Hmmm, As Lucia pointed out there was no crossover between 07 and 08… There is now.
Sorry I was looking at the wrong channel…
The month of May in Peoria, IL was a whopping 8.34 degrees F cooler than a year ago. More carbon dioxide please, I’m freezing here in the Midwest.
Right now it is 17 degrees colder than last year. Friday could bring valley wide freezing to several gardens in this remote corner of Oregon. And more snow in the Blue and Wallowa Mountains all week, with some at pass level near Tollgate. This kind of stuff happened in the 50’s. Prior to that, in 1878, my great-grandfather decided to settle in the Wallowa Valley when the Blue’s experienced such a fall through spring blizzard that no one could get to the Willamette Valley along the Oregon Trail all winter long.
[…] will see in a few days where this May ranks. Clearly it will be colder than normal. UAH MSU daily data suggests the global average will be well below last year as well. Stay tuned for official […]
And why are the 2008 temps higher than the ‘record’ temps?
I couldn’t find a reference to the original data. Frankly, I don’t trust it.
[…] I thought it was getting hotter? Or no? […]
It is currently 25 degrees F below the temperature recorded last year at 6:45 PM in Enterprise, Oregon. All those tomato plants are jus’ sittin there. Fortunately I love fried green tomatoes. There will be plenty in the valley come fall because none of them will be able to ripen to the red stage. I also love green tomato salsa, spiced with hot peppers, onion, and garlic. Mix in an avocado (if they will even be available this fall), and you’ve got some good stuff to go along with warmed tortilla chips! Salty marguaritta anyone? Cuz we are gonna need the HEAT, and a drink that cools the lips but warms the innerds!
It might not be too early to learn Spanish. But if I’m wrong, I already know Canadian.
I bet it has nothing to do with the strong La Nina from Feb and April (there is a time lag in the earth’s system) and the fact we are the low of sunspot cycle with no to hardly any for 2 years, the low activity is notable and the overall intensity of the trough is the lowest since 1990.
Also March 2008 by NOAA was the second hottest ever and the hottest over land despite these doubled cooling influences.
Also the globe is the whole globe not a single tomato plant, in May here we where 6C above normal and Asia and parts of the Arctic are severla degrees above normal.
Nino conditions have gone neutral and most likely to be EL Nino later this year or early next year, and the NAO is in a negative phase which will encourage the arctic ice melt and as it is 90% (NSIDC) likely that we have a new arctic sea low this year with all that extra heat absorbed due to albedo conditions, wouldn’t be surprised to see those global temepratures to reveal the actual warming again soon.
[…] years show declining temperatures. It may take a while before Arctic ocean waters respond, but temperatures have actually been falling for a while now. “The Arctic sea ice melt is a disaster for the polar bears,” according to Kassie Siegel, staff […]
Which is why I say this
http://smellytourist.wordpress.com/2009/01/12/hunt-polar-bear/