U.S. says this was world's warmest recorded winter
Pastor Dale Morgan
Friday March 16, 7:42 AM Reuters
*U.S. says this was world's warmest recorded winter*
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - This has been the world's warmest winter since
record-keeping began more than a century ago, the U.S. government agency
that tracks weather reported on Thursday.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said the
combined global land and ocean surface temperature from December through
February was at its highest since records began in 1880.
A record-warm January was responsible for pushing up the combined winter
temperature, according to the agency's Web site, http://www.noaa.gov.
"Contributing factors were the long-term trend towards warmer
temperatures as well as a moderate El Nino in the Pacific," Jay
Lawrimore of NOAA's National Climatic Data Centre said in a telephone
interview from Asheville, North Carolina.
The next-warmest winter on record was in 2004, and the third warmest
winter was in 1998, Lawrimore said.
The ten warmest years on record have occurred since 1995.
"We don't say this winter is evidence of the influence of greenhouse
gases," Lawrimore said.
However, he noted that his centre's work is part of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change process, which released a
report on global warming last month that found climate change is
occurring and that human activities quite likely play a role in the change.
"So we know as a part of that, the conclusions have been reached and the
warming trend is due in part to rises in greenhouse gas emissions,"
Lawrimore said. "By looking at long-term trends and long-term changes,
we are able to better understand natural and anthropogenic
(human-caused) climate change."
The combined temperature for the December-February period was 1.3
degrees F (0.72 degree C) above the 20th century mean, the agency said.
Lawrimore did not give an absolute temperature for the three-month
period, and said the deviation from the mean was what was important. He
did not provide the 20th century mean temperature.
Temperatures were above average for these months in Europe, Asia,
western Africa, southeastern Brazil and the northeast half of the United
States, with cooler-than-average conditions in parts of Saudi Arabia and
the central United States.
Global temperature on land surface during the northern hemisphere winter
was also the warmest on record, while the ocean-surface temperature tied
for second warmest after the winter of 1997-98.
Over the past century, global surface temperatures have increased by
about 0.11 degree F (0.06 degree C) per decade, but the rate of increase
has been three times larger since 1976 -- around 0.32 degree F (0.18
degree C) per decade, with some of the biggest temperature rises in the
high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere.