2014 warmest year in Europe since 1500s

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

2014 warmest year in Europe since 1500s

Climate change is very likely to have helped make 2014 Europe’s warmest year since the 1500s, scientists have found.

In a move that could eventually pave the way for law suits against companies burning fossil fuels, researchers at Oxford university found global warming had increased the risk of such a record being set by at least a factor of 10.

Other teams working independently in The Netherlands and Australia said the odds had been boosted by 35 to 80 times.

Though there are still two weeks of the year left, temperatures have already been so high in so many countries that 2014 is expected to be the hottest on record in Europe and globally.

Climate scientists have said for decades the carbon dioxide emissions produced by burning coal, oil and gas are warming global temperatures.

But until recently they have been reluctant to blame global warming for specific weather extremes.

This is starting to change as researchers deploy increasingly sophisticated computer models to compare the chances of such anomalies occurring with and without the influence of humans on the climate.

Environmental lawyers are already watching developments in this emerging field of so-called climate attribution science closely, to see if it opens the way for legal action against large fossil fuel companies.

“In the early 1900s, before global warming played a significant role in our climate, the chances of getting a year as warm as 2014 were less than 1-in-10,000. In fact, the number is so low that we could not compute it with confidence,” said Geert Jan van Oldenborgh, a climate scientist at KNMI, the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute.

The institute calculated global warming made this year’s high temperatures in Europe at least 80 times more likely.

For many individual countries, the probability increased by a factor of at least 30, including the UK and several central European nations.

At least 19 European countries are likely to see their hottest year on record this year, including the UK, Germany and France.

Initial estimates by KNMI show the average temperature in Europe this year will be 10.5ºC. This is 0.3ºC above the previous record set in 2007.

That means it is likely to be warmer than any of the last 500 years, the scientists say, based on analysis of early instrumental records, and proxies for such data like tree rings.

Nine of the 10 hottest years recorded worldwide have occurred since 2000 and there has not been an annual global cold record set since 1911, according to the National Climatic Data Center in the US.

The trend is similar in Europe, where scientists say there has not been an annual cold record set across the continent since 1956.

Three teams of researchers from Oxford, The Netherlands and two Australian universities worked independently using different techniques to produce the latest results for Europe.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e92579ae-8580-11e4-ab4e-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3NPwlWw1m

2014 set to be the hottest year on record – NOAA

WASHINGTON D.C., United States, Friday December 5, 2014 – Despite the record early snowfall in parts of the United States in recent weeks, 2014 is shaping up to be the hottest year on record.

According to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the first ten months of this year have been the hottest since record keeping began more than 130 years ago.

NOAA data showed that October was the hottest October on record globally, with temperatures climbing more than one degree Fahrenheit above the 20th century average of 57.1 F.

“The record high October temperature was driven by warmth across the globe over both the land and ocean surfaces and was fairly evenly distributed between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres,” the agency said.

Meanwhile, the average global temperature between January and October has been 0.68 degrees Celsius (1.22 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than the 20th century’s average global temperature of 14.1 C (57.4 F).

NOAA’s analysis breaks down global temperatures into two categories, land and sea, as well as an average that includes both. October’s record high temperatures were clocked across both land and sea.

The surface temperature on land approached a significant and potentially perilous scientific benchmark at almost 2 degrees Celsius higher than the 20th century average for October of 9.3 C (48.7 F).

Any temperature increase above the 2 degree Celsius mark is “dangerous,” according to the non-binding international agreement on climate change, the Copenhagen Accord, reached in 2009.

Experts have long predicted that a change in global average temperature of just 2 to 3 degrees higher could have catastrophic consequences, contributing to disastrous storms, storm surges, melting polar ice and sea level rise.

October’s ocean temperatures were also the warmest on record, according to NOAA, with an increase of 1.12 F over the 20th century average of 60.6 degrees.

Of particular concern, several countries have already seen an average temperature increase exceeding 2 degrees Celsius in October 2014 compared to 20th century averages, including France, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and Australia.

“Record warmth for the year-to-date was particularly notable across much of northern and western Europe, parts of Far East Russia, and large areas of the northeastern and western equatorial Pacific Ocean,” NOAA said.

“It is also notable that record warmth was observed in at least some areas of every continent and major ocean basin around the world,” the agency added.

The midsection of the United States, which saw a severe winter, was a notable exception, with its average temperature this year below the 20th century average.

Read more: http://www.caribbean360.com/news/2014-set-hottest-year-record-noaa#ixzz3NPyVUE6d

But here we are...

[spookyturtle 9,465]

I call bs. There were no thermometers in the 1500's.

[LibCampFireClub 635]

If Europe had worn a coat while playing with friends, they could have avoided this cold and fever.

[eieio 1,594]

Carbon credits! Carbon credits! Get your carbon credits here!!

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

So much for global warming causing the ice caps to melt, bringing the Atlantic pump to a stall and the Thames freezing over.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Algore wrong again. I was actually hoping it was true.

http://www.whoi.edu/main/news-releases/2009?tid=3622&cid=54366

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

We've been warming since the end of the last ice-age..... 12,000 years ago,

There was the little ice age..... but that's way over the head of most lefties.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

As expected.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

As expected.

And the sky is falling crowd continues to post memes that are factually untrue. So, tell a lie often enough...

Seen from space, the majority of the Earth’s surface is covered by oceans – that makes up 71% of the surface of the Earth, with the remaining 29% for land. But what percentage of the Earth’s land surface is desert? Deserts actually make up 33%, or 1/3rd of the land’s surface area.

That might sound like a surprisingly large amount, but that’s based on the official definition of a desert. Desert are any region on Earth that can have a moisture deficit over the course of a year. In other words, they can have less rainfall in a year than they give up through evaporation.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

This subject needs more science and less editorial. As usual for VJ, it ends up becoming a sideshow of politically motivated preconceptions.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

This subject needs more science and less editorial. As usual for VJ, it ends up becoming a sideshow of politically motivated preconceptions.

Science comes hard to people that seem to think all the world's ills could be cured by smoking rope and sitting in a drum circle.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

If you say so

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

If you say so

Thanks for agreeing with me.

[decocker 7,198]

Science comes hard to people that seem to think all the world's ills could be cured by smoking rope and sitting in a drum circle.

why would anyone smoke rope when hippy litter is readily available?

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

why would anyone smoke rope when hippy litter is readily available?

"Rope" was the original slang term for Mary Juana