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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Steve from rockwood asked: Eastern Canada is unseasonably mild. How does the cold air get there without cooling everything in between?
Eastern Canada started out cold, but most of the cold air in Florida came from western Canada. The same blocking pattern featuring a deep low stalled over eastern Canada pumped warm air up and around and back into eastern Canada. Eventually some of that less frigid air made it to Virginia. In our third December cold blast we had the same flow as the first two cold blasts, but less cold air was available up in Canada.
hotroad @ur momisugly 5:43 — heading toward zero —
Like you we are still sort of on the outer edge of this rapidly moving “warming induced” Arctic outbreak. We are (at 9 PM) at 14° F. headed to zero (WA State, east of the Cascades); much of Montana is already zero or below. This is one big mass of cold air. By morning, most of the country will seem very cold.
Chris in (cold)Hervey Bay says:. .December 30, 2010 at 7:15 pm
It has been cool here for months, where is our summer ??
Here in Melbourne – right now 40 °C.
Jimbo
I am going to wait a week or so until the 2010 annual temperature data settles down and is verified.
However from my preliminary study over a few very scattered Australian locations, once you account for UHI (and I have been able to do that for some locations very successfully) there is no indication that maximum temperature in these places has varied significantly for well over 100 years.
On the otherhand, I just caught the last few seconds of an interview on the ABC NewsRadio station. The interviewee was described as the head of the IPCC, but he talked with and Aussie accent, when I would have expected a more Indian one.
Well he said that they have checked all the other possible causes of the reported temperature rise, such as increases in sun’s radiation, cosmic rays, etc etc. He said that they could not account for the rise without including CO2. Now I don’t know what he meant by checking cosmic rays, but I did note that he completely failed to mention UHI, which seems to me to be the culpit down here in certain parts of Australia.
But he is the expert and so he MUST be right, or xxxxxxxxxx (fill in the blanks to your taste).
Happy New Year
The warmists know the tide has moved against them. Most know that floating the ‘European cold is due to global warming’ will only result in loss of credibility. The New York Times is trying to spin the new EPA rules as us against the oil companies without addressing the reaction by the masses should it become unaffordable to heat our houses. The recent congressional elections have put fear into the small elite liberal wing of the democratic party. Many of the independents who swung republican are simply middle class democrats who see that Obama’s global warming policies will only result in exported jobs and higher utility costs. They do not believe in green jobs. Democrats have mistakenly counted on Hispanic voters but have instead watched as Hispanics took a republican governorship in New Mexico and of course the Senate seat in Florida. Raul Grivalja, the most left wing member of congress barely survived in Arizona.
The Democrats are overseeing the destruction of the American oil industry while we import 12 million barrels a day of oil. Even President Lula of Brazil a trained Marxist has rediscovered populist capitalism while Brazil rapidly becomes the top oil exporter in the Western Hemisphere from deep water oil deposits from the Atlantic offshore.
Next year we will have a bond crisis that will reveal that Emperor Obama has no clothes and has abdicated leadership to China, India and Brazil.
Just read the title, havn’t read the comments yet, but I cannot help it: We are seeing record cold temperatures in most cities and countries of the world, but its the warmest year ever for the planet. But is it the same planet? Or is it planet CRU-Hansen in constellation Warmista Major?
For anybody who wants to see what Florida’s temperatures have done over the last hundred years there is a government website (NOAA) called Climate At A Glance.
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/cag3/fl.html
While warmist climatologist James Hansen claims the world is heating up at .1 degree per decade this website reveals that Florida has heated by only .03 degrees per decade over the last one hundred years. However, if you enter 1998 as the start date on the website you will see that Florida has cooled since then at the rate of -.87 degrees per decade. In other words temps in Florida are falling off a cliff. In fact in ten years Florida’s temperatures dropped more than the globe has warmed in 100 years. Ask your congressman and television weatherman to comment on this.
It’s important to remember that, typically, high atmospheric temperatures are heat-shedding events. That heat, of course, though lost to space will be replaced by more heat…from the oceans…which are…cooling. Uh-oh…
ha ha. agw results in snow.
that is doubleplusgood
the chocolate ration has been increased from 30 grams to 25 grams
Germany in coldest December in 40 years:
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90777/90853/7247950.html
UK WEATHER: DECEMBER HAS BEEN COLDEST FOR 300 YEARS
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/220085/UK-weather-December-has-been-coldest-for-300-yearsUK-weather-December-has-been-coldest-for-300-years#ixzz19gGs3ej4
Watching the ENSO/SST Page over the past six months it has been interesting how the heat in the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic around Bermuda and Cuba, has cooled down from a positive anomoly to a negative one.
I assume a lot of heat was sucked up by the hurricane season, however a lot of the cooling has occurred since then, and seems likely due to the cold air pouring south from Canada, over the Southeast, and off the coast. ‘
One reason Joe Bastardi was able to predict a cold December for the Southeast was due to the warmth in the Caribbean creating uplift which would draw the colder and heavier air south. Now it seems that dynamic is no longer able to occur to such a degree. Time for a pattern change?
The warmists ‘ latest trick is to blame the ice free Arctic for the cold sweeping europe..apparently the warm ice free ocean heats the air and forms a huge high pressure area around which the freezing air flows..hmmmmm..looking at the charts there seems to be plenty of ice in the Arctic now[and for months].Also in my understanding heated rising air produces an area of LOW pressure?And of course where was all the extreme cold in 2007 when there was reduced Arctic sea ice??
Miami , right now 22C/72F.
“DirkH says:
December 30, 2010 at 7:22 pm
It’s far, far more than that. Nonoy Oplas from Manila reports:
http://funwithgovernment.blogspot.com/2010/12/global-warming-hits-asia.html”
Thank you very much for that Dirk. It is certainly consistent with the near surface temperatures at Dr. Spencer’s site:
http://www.drroyspencer.com/2009/01/daily-monitoring-of-global-average-temperatures/
The near surface global temperatures dropped from -16.75 C to -17.31 C or 0.56 C from December 23 to December 27.
Nick Stokes says:
December 30, 2010 at 9:17 pm
Here in Melbourne – right now 40 °C.
__________________
The low is expected to be 19 C, the forecast highs for the next few days are 25-19 C and the lows 15-11 C.
Here in Kansas it was 62F yesterday but today it’s expected to only reach 33F with a low of 15F.
But then again, it’s only weather.
I was away this week and missed a lot here at WUWT . IIRC , there were a comment or two on other threads that claimed that the blocking high over Greenland was weakening . Is this still the case ?
Give Dr. James “Thumbs On The Temperature Scale” Hansen a few weeks to homogenize and pasteurize the data, and this December in Miami might wind up being the warmest on record.
” Nick Stokes says:
December 30, 2010 at 9:17 pm
Here in Melbourne – right now 40 °C.”
Yup, one hot day in an otherwise overwhelmingly cool Melbourne summer! 🙂
Right now at 11:AM Melbourne is 19C.
The low temperatures for the Southern US, especially Florida are not what I wanted to see:-( Right now the temperature in Kamloops BC is -10 C which is pretty normal for this time of year and we’re experiencing clear night skies and sunny days. I note that Daytona Beach is not that much warmer and for the first time since I’ve been to Florida will have to consider taking along some warm clothes. (Unless of course the weather decides to heat up in the next week).
Then there are advantages to this “global warming” we’re experiencing. It’s possible to just leave the champagne outside to cool and that warm bottle of champagne will warm up the local atmosphere slightly.
Happy new year everyone.
tobyglyn says:
December 31, 2010 at 4:05 pm
“Yup, one hot day in an otherwise overwhelmingly cool Melbourne summer! :)”
Yeah Tobes, sure thing. The LTA Maximum for Melbourne in December is 24.2C
December ’10 average max was 24.8C.
I think I can see a glacier forming at the end of my street.
Sorry climate fraud deniers, but a 21% increase of co2 over the last 100 years is not enough to warm the planet: Earth’s atmosphere is 78% nitrogen 21% oxygen and less that 1% other gasses. co2 is only .039% of the atmosphere at today’s levels. It was claimed to be .032% levels 100 years ago. .039 – .032 = .007 or around 21% more co2 than 100 years ago. Sorry you climate change believers, but 21% of a fractional number is just so insignificant, and NO NASA scientist can or will debate me, and I only have an Associate Degree! He! He! He!
Fake global warming, yet another violation of our rights. Add it to the list of gov’t violations of our right:
They violate the 1st Amendment by placing protesters in cages, banning books like “America Deceived II” and censoring the internet.
They violate the 2nd Amendment by confiscating guns.
They violate the 4th and 5th Amendment by molesting airline passengers.
They violate the entire Constitution by starting undeclared wars for foreign countries.
Impeach Obama and sweep out the Congress, except Ron Paul.
(Last link of Banned Book):
http://www.iuniverse.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-000190526
Go to – iceagenow.com
Up is Down. White is Black. 1+1=3. Tomorrow is Yesterday. Hot is Hot & Cold is Hot & Warm is Hot & Freezing is Hot & Burning is Hot & IceCubes are Hot & Snow is Hot & Oceans are Hot & the Air is Hot & the Ground is Hot & Nighttime is Hot & Daytime is Hot & Afternoon is Hot & Politicians Speech is Hot & Hot Girls are Hot & Ice Cream is Hot & Popsicles are Hot……………….But the SUN is COLD & could NEVER EVER HEAT ANYTHING EVER NOT EVER.
Good thing for global warming or it would really be cold…..