NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) late Thursday released its preliminary analysis of July 2009 global temperatures. It found that the global average land and ocean surface temperature was the 5th warmest on record, 0.57°C (1.03°F) above the 20th century average of 15.8°C (60.4°F). The ocean surface temperature broke the 1998 record to become the warmest for the month of July at 0.59°C (1.06°F) above the 20th century average of 16.4°C (61.5°F). The departure from the long-term average was equal to June's record amount. Other highlights from the NCDC report:
- July 2009 was the 33rd consecutive July with an average global land and ocean surface temperature above the 20th century average. The last July with global temperatures below the 20th century average occurred in 1976.
- The global land surface temperature for July 2009 was 0.51°C (0.92°F) above the 20th century average of 14.3°C (57.8°F), and tied with 2003 as the ninth-warmest July on record.
- For the year to date, the global combined land and ocean surface temperature of 14.3°C (57.9°F) tied with 2004 for the sixth-warmest January-through-July period on record.
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2 comments:
Hello Steve,
I've checked out some of the tutorials in your sidebar since we discussed AGW on bigcitylib.
I find that the evidence is still underwhelming. Here are my reasons.
Primarily, what Im looking for is empirical evidence (which excludes computer models) which links human CO2 with catastrophic warming.
Some of the links offered dont provide that, and instead debunk some of the poorer skeptic arguments. That's fine though, I did find some links which addressed this issue.
As far as Im concerned, the key question is whether the warming caused by additional CO2 creates a positive or negative feedback. Most, even the IPCC, agree that in the absence of a positive feedback, there is not much to worry about.
The most important positive feedback posited by the IPCC is that of water vapor. So naturally Im concerned about evidence relating to the existence of a positive water vapor feedback. On this point, I note that both Richard Lindzen and Robert Pielke have both published studies which point to a negative feedback, but nevertheless Im open to arguments and evidence from the other side showing a positive water feedback.
This was rather helpful and direct in stating that the actual existence of the water vapor feedback is very much in doubt. I got there following your links, although I could not retrace my steps exactly.
The most promising paper on the topic that i found following your links is this, but unfortunately only the abstract is available.
I found only one site which dared to take on head-on the issue of empirical evidence, and I find that they fall way short of being convincing.
Their point seems to be that the missing hotspot was missed because of issues with satellite and radiosonde measurements. I do find that the issues highlighted with respect to satellites and radiosondes seem valid, but we really need actual data which shows the hotspot, not just adjusted data.
Thanks for stopping by. I'm putting my reply in a separate blog post, which I hope to have finished later today.
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