Climate Change is Cyclical: 1934 was almost as hot as 2006.

[NNadir]

U.S. Temperature Highlights
The average June-August 2006 temperature for the contiguous United States (based on preliminary data) was 2.4 degrees F (1.3 degrees C) above the 20th century average of 72.1 degrees F (22.3 degrees C). This was the second warmest summer on record, slightly cooler than the record of 74.7 degrees F set in 1936 during the Dust Bowl era. This summer's average was 74.5 degrees F. Eight of the past ten summers have been warmer than the U.S. average for the same period.

The persistence of the anomalous warmth in 2006 made this January-August period the warmest on record for the continental U.S., eclipsing the previous record of 1934. (Click NOAA image for larger view of June-August 2006 statewide precipitation rankings. Please credit “NOAA.”)

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2006/s2700.htm

So if Al Gore is so damn smart, how come it was hot in the 1930's? Tell me about that! Huh?

It's a beautiful warm day here in New Jersey, spring like, a perfect way to end November. Such nice weather makes me feel like weather-freeping. :-)

I did finally get around to watching "An Inconvenient Truth" this weekend, as it's just been released on DVD.

[Radical Activist]

1. So, this is sarcasm?

If you saw an Inconvenient Truth, that issue was dealt with, of course.

[Ellis Wyatt]

10. I haven't seen the movie yet

But what was the explaination? The "well if it was this hot in 1930 (or 1830), then that would point to cyclicality, and if was 1830, then it would seemingly refute the claims that it's people causing any climate change since it was well before any industrial revolution" argument is one that I hear often and I don't know how to counteract it. Though, I'm admittedly saddeningly ignorant on global warming.

The other argument I hear alot is "well, these are comparing temperatures 'in recorded history', which is barely 100 years, and over the course of 6 billion years, it is completely meaningless to compare such a tiny sample amongst itself"

I'd be interested to hear the counter to that argument, but I guess I should just buy the movie.

[Radical Activist]

11. Well, first

seven of the hottest ten years on record occurred in the last decade.
Second, we can track temperature changes and CO2 levels back thousands of years. Gore covers the methodology in the movie. There is a clear correlation between the two. Current CO2 levels are far beyond any natural change or cycles on record. Far, far beyond any natural cycles.

So, yes temperature is cyclical, but the evidence is that we are going beyond the norm of natural cycles and into dangerous territory. The existence of natural cycles does not negate the reality of the current global warming crisis, which is far beyond anything seen in the past.

[grizmaster]

2. weather freeping? LOL

for a second you had me worried there

[NNadir]

3. You want worry? I'll give you worry. Here's the map for the entire year.

Record highs running right through the corn belt.

[Ellis Wyatt]

4. challenge the validity of that map

Explain to me how the high for Pennsylvalia is 66 degrees while being surrounded by states with 100+ degree highs.

[NNadir]

6. Pennsylvania sits on a large deposit of ice.

Seriously, the unit is not degrees, but ranking among the coolest years.

The 66 means that there were 66 years in 112 recorded that were cooler than 2006 in Pennsylvania in the June-August period.

[Ellis Wyatt]

8. ah!

makes more sense. Still the argument holds (albeit less) water.

You'd think there would be more consistentcy in the map rather than that one major outlayer.

[NNadir]

9. It's not much of an outlier.

The bordering states except New Jersey are all somewhat lower than the rest of the country, much of which is over 90. You have to keep in mind that these records probably all depend on a few degrees of difference. Thus the 78th hottest year in West Virginia may be very close to the 66th year.

The cluster of states below 90, including OH, KY, IN, etc can be explained by a pattern of weather that persisted for a time over OH this summer that somehow did not effect (the more coastal) State of New Jersey. Remember too that these records are relative to the average climate.

One of the things that will happen as we warm, of course, is that the "average" will drift higher.

[neoblues]

5. Also, It was every bit as hot a couple of decades ago...

in a West Texas field that had been plowed but not planted and not irrigated and was dry as a bone... and the hot sun was shining and I had to work with a pick and shovel...

Any thermometer in the shade in that part of the country would have told you it was 104 degrees, but, in that field... I am certain it was much hotter--as hot as it could be anywhere.

Okay, okay, that was kind of unscientific(al).

A few years later, there was the day in NYC when I was climbing stairs in the Statue of Liberty... That July day, NYC was having brownouts due to an unprecedented heat wave. The air conditioning had failed. Very shortly after we purchased our tickets, the ticket office closed--because the temperatures inside were climbing beyond 130 degrees. Every inch of the climb, the stairs, the railings etc, were doused with human sweat (eeewww). The humidity was rather extreme as well. Now that was Hot. Now then, since NYC is part of the Globe, it must've been very Hot elsewhere too (based on the well known law of thermodynamics that the temperature here is the same as it is over there; so it's the same everywhere). Nobody said that was Global Warming, therefore, any claims that it's been hot lately are simply misinformed.

I also remember some awful hot summers way back when (in the desert Southwest), therefore it must not any hotter now (based on the well known law of physics that if it was hot then, it's probably cooled off since then and not as hot now). Remember, it is written: Energy is neither created nor destroyed--so it must always be the same, and since Hot is because of Heat, and Heat is Energy, the Hot must always be the same! See?

Therefore, if the Global is Warming, it is Cooling too, so we's okay. Besides, I've popped a few balloons filled with CO2 before, and it didn't make the room any warmer... (All these people, believing in Pseudo-Science... so sad.)

Now anybody who thinks any of that made any kind of argument against Global Warming... has my pity.

Global Warming (G.W.): Major Human Catastrophe
George Walker Bush (G.W.B.): Major Catastrophic Human

[NNadir]

7. Wow. I never thought of it that way. That is so hot, or cool, or something.

[enid602]

12. Hmmm . . . 1934

Wasn't that also the year they burned down the Reichstag? Just sayin'.

[NNadir]

13. Yes, and the fire contributed to global climate change.

[Systematic Chaos]

14. Well wouldja lookit THAT?

Nevada had it's hottest June-August ever this year. And here it never got as hot in Vegas as it did last summer (one full week of 116+ and three days of 119), but then that isn't representative of the entire state.

And as far as this fall goes, today was the first cold and windy morning of the season. We were stuck in the high 60's to low 70's every freaking day. It was nice, but knowing it was very not normal didn't make me feel any better. :(