The Oceans Warmed up Sharply in 2013: We're Going to Need a Bigger Graph

[GliderGuider]

The Oceans Warmed up Sharply in 2013: We're Going to Need a Bigger Graph

Long-term the oceans have been gaining heat at a rate equivalent to about 2 Hiroshima bombs per second, although this has increased over the last 16 or so years to around 4 per second. In 2013 ocean warming rapidly escalated, rising to a rate in excess of 12 Hiroshima bombs per second - over three times the recent trend. This doesn't necessarily mean we are entering a period of greatly accelerated ocean warming, as there is substantial year-to-year variation in heat uptake by the oceans. It does, however, once again dispel the persistent myth of a pause in global warming, because the Earth has actually continued to warm faster in the last 16 years than it did in the preceding 16 years.

As can be seen in Figure 1 below, the global oceans have warmed so quickly in 2013 that the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) is going to need a bigger graph.

[phantom power]

1. Bad

Bad, bad, bad.

[defacto7]

2. an understatement.

[Iterate]

3. And we need a new metaphor.

I've never cared much for the Hiroshima as a unit of measure, either for heat or blast. Was never quite sure just how much that was other than "a bunch".

Similarly, the "Manhattan" as a unit of ice sheet area, or the "Empire State" for height, or the "Astrodome" for volume never seemed quite right. It really started to bug me with the article "Earth's Rate Of Global Warming Is 400,000 Hiroshima Bombs A Day | ThinkProgress", which I'm sure I saw here. I thought about it for a while, and then of course did nothing.

Now it's time to act. So rather than setting off bombs, let's boil Lake Erie. It's big, relatively shallow, and has less volume that people might think. Sorry Cleveland, but I'm being a propagandist here. That's also why we want to bring it to a boil rather than boil it dry as the amount of energy required to do that is much greater than people realize intuitively.

The variables are known. The starting temp doesn't actually matter that much and no one has conveniently offered me an average of the whole volume over an entire year, so I'll go with 15C.

Given an extra 250 trillion Joules per second retained in the atmosphere, if it was conveniently focused (sorry Cleveland) that would take eight days to bring the lake to a full boil. Give or take, and if my Jethro naughts are in the right place. Crowd-sourcing a correction, refinement, or other location is welcomed.

One entire boiling Great Lake, in eight days**, then do it again. Happy Groundhog Week. We can call it the "Erie".

**I've rechecked this and still can't believe it, but it's late so I'll recheck again tomorrow. Or better yet, crowd-source.