Why this ad?
![]() EA Solar Panels – energyaustralia.com.au/solarsaver – Quality Solar Systems from $2,399 We are the Solar Power Experts!
|
Courtesy david spratt
climate code red
Inbox
|
x |
![](https://ssl.gstatic.com/ui/v1/icons/mail/profile_mask2.png)
|
8:21 PM (1 hour ago)
![]() |
![]() ![]() |
||
|
climate code red |
No warming “pause” says World Meteorological Organization head
Posted: 05 Feb 2014 10:14 PM PST The head of the World Meteorological Organization says there is no standstill in global warming, which is on course to continue for generations to come.
By Alex Kirby, Climate News Network The planet is continuing to warm, with implications for generations ahead, and temperatures are set to rise far into the future, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reports. It says 2013 was among the ten warmest years since modern records began in 1850, equalling 2007 as the sixth warmest year, with a global land and ocean surface temperature 0.50°C above the 1961–1990 average and 0.03°C higher than the most recent 2001–2010 average.
El Niño events (which intensify warming) and cooling La Niñas are major drivers of natural climate variability. Neither occurred during 2013, which was warmer than 2011 or 2012, when La Niña exerted its cooling influence. 2013 was among the four warmest neutral years recorded, when neither El Niño nor La Niña affected temperatures. “The global temperature for the year 2013 is consistent with the long-term warming trend”, said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud:
Asked by Climate News Network how WMO regarded claims by some critics that there has been a “global warming standstill since 1997”, Mr Jarraud said: “Which standstill? The coldest year since 2001 is warmer than any year before 1998:
The WMO says surface temperature is just part of a much wider picture of climate change. “More than 90% of the excess heat being caused by human activities is being absorbed by the ocean”, it says. It has released the temperature data in advance of its full Statement on the Status of the Climate in 2013, to be published in March. This will give more details of regional temperatures and other indicators. Consistent findings In contrast with 2012, when the US in particular experienced record high annual temperatures, the warmth in 2013 was most extreme in Australia, which had its hottest year on record. WMO’s global temperature analysis is based mainly on three independent and complementary datasets. One is maintained by two UK centres, the Met Office Hadley Centre and the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia. The other two are based in the US: NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, and the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), operated by NASA. Each dataset uses slightly different methods of calculation and so each gave 2013 a different temperature ranking, but they were consistent on the year-by-year changes and the longer warming trends globally. WMO also uses reanalysis-based data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), which showed annual global land and ocean temperature to be the fourth highest on record. |