2008 Among Warmest Years Ever(10th warmest)

Some of the headlines may have been deceiving, but don't be fooled: 2008 was among the hottest years ever recorded on Earth, and it concludes the hottest decade ever recorded.

The World Meteorological Organization and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration in the U.S. estimate the 2008 average temperature slightly differently, with the U.S. estimate a hair warmer than the WMO. But both agree that 2008 is the 10th warmest year ever recorded (since 1850 for the WMO or 1880 for the U.S. records), and that the span from 1998 to 2008 has seen global warming at a pace unprecedented in the age of humankind.

The U.S. estimates that the world's ocean surface temperature ranked fifth-highest ever recorded, despite the presence early in the year of La Nina conditions in the Southern Pacific Ocean, which cool a vast swath of the ocean and influence weather patterns worldwide.

The most dramatic result of the abnormally warm 2008 year was seen in the Arctic, where more ice melted than in any year other than 2007. Further, the volume of ice in the Arctic hit a new record low. Since 2003, 2 trillion tons of land ice have disappeared, with more than half that total disappearing from Greenland, according to a NASA study.

http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/global-warming-47121702


La Nina Cools World, Making 2008 10th-Warmest Year (Update2)

Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) -- The global average temperature fell in 2008 as Pacific Ocean winds caused by the La Nina weather phenomenon helped cool the planet.

The worldwide average measured 14.31 degrees Celsius (57.76 Fahrenheit) from January to November, the U.K. government forecaster, the Met Office, said today in a report. That was 0.1 degree below 2007 and 0.21 degree lower than in 1998, the hottest year since global measurements began in the 1800s.

The cooling in 2008 may represent a short-term reversal in an overall warming trend that scientists say is changing the world’s rainfall patterns, melting ice caps and intensifying floods and droughts.

“We don’t expect every year to be a record-breaker,” Peter Stott, head of climate monitoring at the Met Office in the southwestern English city of Exeter, said yesterday in a telephone interview. The 2008 measurement “doesn’t show that global warming has slowed,” he said.

This year, still set to be the 10th-warmest on record, was tempered by La Nina, a phenomenon whereby equatorial winds off South America blow westward across the Pacific, making colder water deep in the ocean well up. A cooler surface on the world’s largest ocean lowers the temperatures of surrounding continents.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aBhjvcCuoRzw&refer=canada