2014 Was Tucson's 3rd-Hottest Year On Record; 4/6 Warmest Years Happened In Past Six Years

No climate scientist worth his acidifying sea salt will speculate on whether one year of record warm weather is due to global warming or other forces of human-caused climate change. But Gregg Garfin, a top climate scientist at the University of Arizona, said 2014’s record warm temperature in Tucson — which matched the global record warm temperature for the past year — “certainly seems consistent” with projections UA scientists and others have made for future global warming.

His comment matched what a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration official said in October, after the year’s first 10 months of global temperatures broke a record. That record-breaking pattern continued through November, but the annual global temperature data isn’t in yet. This year’s heat is what scientists expect from man-made global warming, Deke Arndt, climate monitoring chief for NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina, told The Associated Press at the time.

EDIT

Instead, four of Tucson’s six warmest years on record, including 2014, have occurred in the past six years. The National Weather Service has been keeping records here since 1895. This city’s third-warmest year on record was 2012, and its sixth-warmest year was 2013, the National Weather Service said in its 2014 end-of-year weather report. Tucson’s fourth-warmest year on record was 2009. Its second-warmest year was 1989 and its fifth-warmest year was 1994.

2014 was also the 16th straight year of above normal temperatures, the year-end weather service report said. Since 1984, only one year — 1998 — has had a below normal average annual temperature.

EDIT

http://tucson.com/news/local/tucson-s-record-warmth-consistent-climate-change-forecast/article_d1dfcb18-9dd4-548c-9aa5-59007d494d04.html