Press release: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2011/20110112_globalstats.html
NOAA: 2010 Tied For Warmest Year on Record
According to NOAA scientists, 2010 tied with 2005 as the warmest year of the global surface temperature record, beginning in 1880. This was the 34th consecutive year with global temperatures above the 20th century average. For the contiguous United States alone, the 2010 average annual temperature was above normal, resulting in the 23rd warmest year on record.
This preliminary analysis is prepared by scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., and is part of the suite of climate services NOAA provides government, business and community leaders so they can make informed decisions.
2010 Global Climate Highlights:
- Combined global land and ocean annual surface temperatures for 2010 tied with 2005 as the warmest such period on record at 1.12 F (0.62 C) above the 20th century average. The range of confidence (to the 95 percent level) associated with the combined surface temperature is +/- 0.13 F (+/- 0.07 C).*
- The global land surface temperatures for 2010 were the warmest on record at 1.80 F (1.00 C) above the 20th century average. The range of confidence associated with the land surface temperature is +/- 0.20 F (+/- 0.11 C).
- Global ocean surface temperatures for 2010 tied with 2005 as the third warmest on record, at 0.88 F (0.49 C) above the 20th century average. The range of confidence associated with the ocean surface temperature is +/- 0.11 F (+/- 0.06 C).
- In 2010 there was a dramatic shift in the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which influences global temperature and precipitation patterns — when a moderate-to-strong El Niño transitioned to La Niña conditions by July. At the end of November, La Niña was moderate-to-strong.
- According to the Global Historical Climatology Network, 2010 was the wettest year on record, in terms of global average precipitation. As with any year, precipitation patterns were highly variable from region to region.
- The 2010 Pacific hurricane season had seven named storms and three hurricanes, the fewest on record since the mid-1960s when scientists started using satellite observations. By contrast, the Atlantic season was extremely active, with 19 named storms and 12 hurricanes. The year tied for third- and second-most storms and hurricanes on record, respectively.
- The Arctic sea ice extent had a record long growing season, with the annual maximum occurring at the latest date, March 31, since records began in 1979. Despite the shorter-than-normal melting season, the Arctic still reached its third smallest annual sea ice minimum on record behind 2007 and 2008. The Antarctic sea ice extent reached its eighth smallest annual maximum extent in March, while in September, the Antarctic sea ice rapidly expanded to its third largest extent on record.
- A negative Arctic Oscillation (AO) in January and February helped usher in very cold Arctic air to much of the Northern Hemisphere. Record cold and major snowstorms with heavy accumulations occurred across much of eastern North America, Europe and Asia. The February AO index reached -4.266, the largest negative anomaly since records began in 1950.
- From mid-June to mid-August, an unusually strong jet stream shifted northward of western Russia while plunging southward into Pakistan. The jet stream remained locked in place for weeks, bringing an unprecedented two-month heat wave to Russia and contributing to devastating floods in Pakistan at the end of July.
U.S. Climate Highlights:
- In the contiguous United States, 2010 was the 14th consecutive year with an annual temperature above the long-term average. Since 1895, the temperature across the nation has increased at an average rate of approximately 0.12 F per decade.
- Precipitation across the contiguous United States in 2010 was 1.02 inches (2.59 cm) above the long-term average. Like temperature, precipitation patterns are influenced by climate processes such as ENSO. A persistent storm track brought prolific summer rain to the northern Plains and upper Midwest. Wisconsin had its wettest summer on record, and many surrounding states had much above-normal precipitation. Since the start of records in the U.S. in 1895, precipitation across the United States is increasing at an average rate of approximately 0.18 inches per decade.
- The year began with extremely cold winter temperatures and snowfall amounts that broke monthly and seasonal records at many U.S. locations. Seasonal snowfall records fell in several cities, including Washington; Baltimore, Md., Philadelphia; Wilmington, Del.; and Atlantic City, N.J. Several NOAA studies established that this winter pattern was made more likely by the combined states of El Niño and the Arctic Oscillation.
- Twelve states, mainly in the Southeast, but extending northward into New England, experienced a record warm June-August. Several cities broke summer temperature records including New York (Central Park); Philadelphia; Trenton, N.J.; and Wilmington, Del.
- Preliminary totals indicate there were 1,302 U.S. tornadoes during 2010. The year will rank among the 10 busiest for tornadoes since records began in 1950. An active storm pattern across the Northern Plains during the summer contributed to a state-record 104 confirmed tornadoes in Minnesota in 2010, making Minnesota the national tornado leader for the first time.
- During 2010, substantial precipitation fell in many drought-stricken regions. The U.S. footprint of drought reached its smallest extent during July when less than eight percent of the country was experiencing drought conditions. The increased precipitation and eradication of drought limited the acres burned and number of wildfires during 2010. Hawaii had near-record dryness occurring in some areas for most of the year.
Scientists, researchers and leaders in government and industry use NOAA’s monthly reports to help track trends and other changes in the world’s climate. This climate service has a wide range of practical uses, from helping farmers know what and when to plant, to guiding resource managers‘ critical decisions about water, energy and other vital assets.
NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth’s environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Visit us online at www.noaa.gov or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/usnoaagov.
###
They mention the Artic sea ice but no mention of the 30 year record Antarctic sea ice in the same year.
Biased !!!!
BillD says:
“The key point is not that one particular year is higher or lower than the previous. The real evidence for warming comes from NOAA’s data showing that the 10 warmest years globally have all occurred from 1998 to 2010. That is, the decade from 2000 to 2009 was by far the warmest decade of the last 180 years.”
Bill, would you also be surprised that the highest waves are at high tide?
What does it tell you when you have one decade out of 15 which is high? It tells you that there’s an amazing 1 in 15 chance of it happening again next decade which really is making me tremble in my boots!
Global temperatures have varied by around 0.1C/decade up and down in the 150 (not 180) years of worldwide records, and not doubt next decade will be like all the rest … 0.1C higher or lower or perhaps even the same and that will be perfectly normal for the climate
Comparing a year with a strong El Ninos with a year without is not very informative. Taking out El Nino and La Nina effects, temperatures peaked in 2005 and the generally insignificant trends you may get around this top between 1998 and 2010 depends on the selection of start and end points.
Why do we fund these morons? They can’t even get the data right.
It’s amazing how easy it is to gin up the surface-temperature results you want with the help of a little interpolation, homogenization and UHI manipulation. Presto! “Tie for the warmest year.”
The government-funded science charlatans at NCDC and GISS don’t know when to stop. They’ve become a laughingstock.
Another Little Ice Age may be just around the corner, and these tax-subsidized Cassandras are still sounding the global warming alarm. They all should be fired tomorrow.
Well it didn’t take my tax payer funded CBC to jump all over this:
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2011/01/12/environment-2010-climate-hottest-warmest-year.html
Sure would be interesting to see if these land based temperature records in Canada compensated for UHI and if so, how much.
I can tell you right now that as a resident of Calgary, Alberta it was definitely one of the coolest summers/years I can remember. I have no way of proving it, but it sure felt like it anyway.
Winter Storm Warning for Hawai’i – whiteout conditions expected (not sarc)
http://forecast.weather.gov/wwamap/wwatxtget.php?cwa=hfo&wwa=winter storm warning
“average annual temperature was above normal”
The average sure didn’t mean anything last January and February when we set record cold temps. Again, you can have a day where the high is 80 and the low is 60 with an average lower than a day that hovered around 71 – 72. The higher average doesn’t mean it was warmer. They ought to quit reporting meaningless averages. They have nothing to do with REALITY.
Are they still missing Siberia and the NW territories? Did they report any better on higher altitudes???
To Steinar Midtskogen: “According to the Norwegian meteorological institute 2010 was the coldest year in Norway since 1941. However, how this national temperature is calculated is a bit of a mystery. I think all these national or global averages should be taken cum grano salis maximo.”
I think they (climate departement) are somewhat unwilling to expose the selected stations that are used for temperature averages. I asked them once, and got a “blurry” answer…
The blocking cold has for time being collapsed, and the westernly, mild winds are back. Wonder if the cold returns?
“the 10 warmest years globally have all occurred from 1998 to 2010”
After “adjustment”. I wonder what the unadjusted record shows.
Gary my Springer isn’t happy until he’s out in 0F munching on a beef bone, he will lay for hours as it snows on him. Dog’s got antifreeze in him. His favorite thing is wait until I’m settled in jammies and slippers fire roaring and he wants to go for a walkie in a howling blizzard….
BTW we are expecting a “Pineapple Clipper” in the Pac NW US. I predict that will bring out the local warmists to scream: “Repent ye sinners! give up, thy SUV by a Prious ,er Pious er,Prius. and sin no more!” then it will turn cold and snow again…
Lemme see…we are in an interglacial period, coming out of the little ice age. It’s continuing to warm up. And these dolts are going ballistic. Yup. SNAFU.
PJP says:
January 12, 2011 at 9:52 am
Since 1895, the temperature across the nation has increased at an average rate of approximately 0.12 F per decade.
Which presumably is included to make one think that they are talking about an average from 1895. Also no mention that this same temperature rise (or higher) has been seen for the last few thousand years (since the last ice age).
Now that I find funny. Ice age ended about 10,000 years ago, that being 1000 decades x 0.12 F per decade means we are, yowsa, 120 degrees warmer now!!!
In 2007, Science Magazine ran an article stating that there had been a sea change in the attitudes of scientists about AGW. At the beginning of that year5, most scientists believed in it. At the end of the year, the majority did not. One major reason for the change was the failure of the 199-2006 climate to warm up.
Now all of a sudden, 2005 is tied with 2010 for hottest year on record.
WUWT readers know how that happened–FRAUD.
Since this fraud harms the economy to the tune of trillions of dollars AND harms the biosphere, the guilty parties need to be searched out and JAILED.
Well this obviously biases NASA claim could well be their undoing – and the end of the CAGW scam.
Cold year all across most of the NH – cold year in many places in the SH – equatorial temps normal. Looks like all the warming happened at the poles where ther are few thermometers and very few people to observe and refute their claims. Can’t wait for the sceptical scientists to get there hand on this data!
Enneagram says:
January 12, 2011 at 9:14 am
“No Observation At All !!
Hey buddies, just look through the window!”
Hmm? It is 2011 outside my window.
BillD says:
January 12, 2011 at 10:09 am
“The key point is not that one particular year is higher or lower than the previous. The real evidence for warming comes from NOAA’s data showing that the 10 warmest years globally have all occurred from 1998 to 2010. That is, the decade from 2000 to 2009 was by far the warmest decade of the last 180 years. This does not say why the global climate is warming, but it does support the idea of substantial warming since the turn of the centry. The observations that 2010 ties for the warmest year suggests that the warming is continuing into the new decade.”
Bill, you have to understand that many of the temperature records for the past have been adjusted to make the past appear colder then it was, the 1930s were much warmer then NOAA would have you believe, and warmer then the past decade.
@Gary Young
Don’t feel you are on your own, there are plenty of us non scientists here trying to get a handle on this. I still can’t grasp a global average temperature when the northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere are so different land mass wise and in opposite seasons. All I care about is what is happening regionally at the moment, that I can prepare for and that is what I will respond to. Anything else is just
b*******politics and a means to get more money out of me.Are they really purporting to claim that they can measure temperatures to hundreths of degrees and the variation is so low that the 95% CI is in hundredths of degrees? I don’t know much about the mechanics of measuring global temperatures, but I’d laugh anyone who brought me two decimal place average temperatures for those operations I can tightly control. My first bit of skepticism came about when I looked at the absolute precision and accuracy inferred by these folks.
As a resident of Asheville, a small part of the irony in this release is that it was a colder than usual winter last year and a milder summer than any I have experienced since moving here. Last winter was the best snow skiing in years.
I would suggest the guys at NCDC need to step outside for a bit, but I know many of them are really into the outdoors. Biking and hiking are huge here.
I am certain at some point last summer one of them said to another, “It’s really interesting that our data is telling us that the rest of the world is experiencing one of the warmest years recorded, but it’s so nice outside let’s go for a ride.”
“In 2010 there was a dramatic shift in the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which influences global temperature and precipitation patterns — when a moderate-to-strong El Niño transitioned to La Niña conditions by July. At the end of November, La Niña was moderate-to-strong.”
They somehow forget to mention the warming effects of a strong El Nino.
But, they’re all to eager to explain the cold weather as a function of standard climate features…
“The year began with extremely cold winter temperatures and snowfall amounts that broke monthly and seasonal records at many U.S. locations. Seasonal snowfall records fell in several cities, including Washington; Baltimore, Md., Philadelphia; Wilmington, Del.; and Atlantic City, N.J. Several NOAA studies established that this winter pattern was made more likely by the combined states of El Niño and the Arctic Oscillation.”
Or it could mean there was a step change upward in 1998 and it’s been flat on average since.
Proving you can fake anything with enough ‘adjustments’.
It’s sad when government scientists lie, to try and dupe ignorant people into paying more taxes for an obvious hoax. But they have been doing this for some time.
i trust their data any more….sorry…
they have perverted science with their own agenda…