Worlds Oceans Warmest On Record This Summer

WASHINGTON — The world's in hot water. Sea-surface temperatures worldwide have been the hottest on record over the last three months, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Wednesday.

Ocean temperatures averaged 62.5 degrees Fahrenheit in the June-August period, 1.04 degree higher than normal for the period.

And for August the world sea-surface average was 62.4 degrees, 1.03 higher than usual, also the warmest for August on record, NOAA's National Climatic Data Center said.

The report is based on data back to 1880.

The combined land and water temperature worldwide was 61.2 degrees, third warmest on record for the three-month period. For August it was 58.2 degrees, fourth warmest.

Climate change has been raising the planet's average temperature steadily in recent decades. All of the 10 hottest years on record have occurred since 1997.

___

On the Net:

NOAA: http://www.noaa.gov

Comments

[SFTor]

01:20 AM on 09/21/2009

It also appears that Hadley's data set does not show the anomaly.

http://i27.tinypic.com/kbuets.png

Again, it looks like a rather drastic warming in relation to almost non-existent warming of the atmosphere in 2009. Is this an El Nino phenomenon?

[realpolitic]

11:26 AM on 09/21/2009

Your link shows a huge spike in sea surface temperatures. What are you talking about?

[SFTor]

01:15 AM on 09/21/2009

Does anyone have any idea what may have caused this increase in ocean temperatures?

Increase in air temperatures? Increased precipitation? Decreased melting of ice caps?

What's the correlation?

[realpolitic]

11:24 AM on 09/21/2009

Yes, the increased co2 in the atmosphere casues a retention of heat, 80% of which is transferred into our oceans. Or, as deniers would say, it is all a huge hoax perpetrated by Al Gore. Take your pick!

[realpolitic]

08:45 AM on 09/18/2009

I hate to upset deniers (well, really I like very much to upset them), but according to NOAA.......


"According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), Arctic sea ice covered an average of 2.42 million square miles during August. This is 18.4 percent below the 1979-2000 average extent, and is generally consistent with a decline of August sea ice extent since 1979."

"The Southern Hemisphere average temperatures for land and ocean surface combined were the warmest on record for August."

"Large portions of the world’s land mass observed warmer-than-average temperatures in August. The warmest departures occurred across Australia, Europe, parts of the Middle East, northwestern Africa, and southern South America. Both Australia and New Zealand had their warmest August since their records began."

http://www.ask.com/bar?q=noaa&page=1&qsrc=0&ab=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.noaa.gov%2F

[Richard2]

11:23 AM on 09/19/2009

All this warm water talk seems directly at odds with the arrival of the Arctic Sea Ice Extent minimum, which was 23% larger this month than two years ago. Reportedly most of the melting of the sea ice is due to exposure to warmer water. As there is now 23% more Arctic Sea Ice in the polar region than two years ago, it would appear, at first glance, that the water temperatures in the polar region are cooler now than two years ago.

Similarly, the amount of Antarctic sea ice is greater this year, at the maximum, is greater than last year. Again, this is not an obvious indicator of ocean warming in the southern hemisphere.

Hope everyone is ready for a cold winter.

[realpolitic]

05:12 PM on 09/19/2009

This denier talking point about Arctic ice rebounding when it is at its third lowest minimum is very strange. Arctic temperatures are slightly cooler this year due to la Nina than when they reached their high in 2007. However, sea ice extent measures sea ice on the surface of the water. It does not consider how far it extends below the water. The older, thicker ice is at an all time low surpassing the low for 2007 and so therefore ice mass would be at a minimum now. Considering the second link, one can hardly see a rebound of Arctic ice.

http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2009-04/nasa-study-shows-thinning-arctic-sea-ice

http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/detect/detection-images/climate-ice-seaice-extent-trend-sep08.png

"Again, Antarctic sea ice is doing little better. In western Antarctica, temperatures are rising at a rate of 0.17 degrees Celsius each decade, almost double the average warming rate around the globe for the last century, the study found."

""Without doubt, Antarctica as a whole is now losing ice yearly, and each year it's losing more," said Eric Rignot, lead author of a paper published online in the journal Nature Geoscience."


http://www.usanpn.org/files/shared/files/RMitchum_Chicago_Tribune_Jan22_article.pdf

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/13/AR2008011302753.html

[rblackbird]

07:17 PM on 09/20/2009

NOAA and NSIDC are wrong. These agencies rely on ice data collected by satellite sensors attached to military observation satellites launched in the early 70's. Satellite imagery improved over the next 30 years. The newer AMSR-E satellites launched in 2002 are more accurate as conceded by NSIDC. Nevertheless, they continue using the less accurate imagers.

The AMSR-E's are showing a different picture. Go to Sea-Ice Monitor, www.ijis.iarc.uaf.edu/cgi-bin/seaice-monitor.cgi. Look at the numeric data page showing monthly sea-ice extent since 2002. http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2009/021809.html. You will see the amounts of ice in August, 2009 and in August, 2007 according to AMSR-E satellites. On August 31, 2009 the Arctic had 5,447, i88 square kilometers of ice. This is over 2.5 million square kilometers more than found by NSDIC. On August 31, 2007, the Arctic contained 4,607,031 square kilometers of ice, about 900,000 fewer square kilometers of ice than in August, 2009.

NOAA and NSDIC are the witch doctors of global warming. Repeated false predictions of doom, looking at climate through less accurate instruments ("If the NSIDC satellite sensors launched over 30 years ago were good enough then, they should be good enough for you now!"), and ignoring the data from the AMSR-E satellites which NSIDC admits are more accurate is nothing better than stirring a cauldron of entrails to find answers. (Perhaps they forgot to put in the eye of a newt.)

[realpolitic]

11:40 AM on 09/21/2009

More conspiracies! Your first link doesn't appear! Besides the error in sensor drift was corrected months ago, if you read your own link.

According to NSIDC...

"We stress, however, that this error in no way changes the scientific conclusions about the long-term decline of Arctic sea ice, which is based on the the consistent, quality-controlled data archive discussed above."

"Some people might ask why we don't simply switch to the EOS AMSR-E sensor. AMSR-E is a newer and more accurate passive microwave sensor. However, we do not use AMSR-E data in our analysis because it is not consistent with our historical data. Thus, while AMSR-E gives us greater accuracy and more confidence on current sea ice conditions, it actually provides less accuracy on the long-term changes over the past thirty years. There is a balance between being as accurate as possible at any given moment and being as consistent as possible through long time periods. Our main scientific focus is on the long-term changes in Arctic sea ice."

According to the graph, the difference in the two sensors was about 500,000 sq. km in mid-February 2009. http://nsidc.org/images/arcticseaicenews/20090217_Figure2.png

My only question is why does the conservative mindset so love conspiracy theories?

[foolonthehill]

10:15 PM on 09/17/2009

Yet the BBC, the Fox News of The Warming, today reported a 'pause' in the melting of the Arctic ice cap for this year. They assured devotees that this did not, of course, mean anything. The chosen models are much more accurate than reality.

Hmmm. And no reports of drowning polar bears for years now.

[realpolitic]

08:39 AM on 09/18/2009

Sorry, but as usual for deniers you are totally misinformed! According to ARGO webpage of the U. of Cal. at San Diego....


"We are increasingly concerned about global change and its regional impacts. Sea level is rising at an accelerating rate of 3 mm/year, Arctic sea ice cover is shrinking and high latitude areas are warming rapidly. Extreme weather events cause loss of life and enormous burdens on the insurance industry. Globally, 8 of the 10 warmest years since 1860, when instrumental records began, were in the past decade."

http://www.ask.com/bar?q=argo&page=1&qsrc=2106&ab=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.argo.ucsd.edu%2F

[realpolitic]

08:51 AM on 09/18/2009

Regarding polar bears...

""Melting ice is causing their numbers to drop dramatically," said Eric Post, associate professor of biology at Penn State University, who led the latest study, publied in the journal Science."

"Recent projections suggest polar bears could be extinct within 70 years."

""But we think this could be a very conservative estimate. The outlook is very bleak for them and other creatures such as ringed seals.”"

"He added: "The rate at which sea ice is disappearing is accelerating and these creatures rely on it for shelter, hunting and breeding. If this goes, so do they.”"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/6167819/Polar-bears-face-extinction-in-less-than-70-years-because-of-global-warming.html

And how did the denying community respond? They said to count the number of "if's" in his statement. What intellectualism!

[friedfish2718]

06:32 PM on 09/17/2009

AMS Fellow and CCM, Joe D’Aleo:
"To enable them to make the case the oceans are warming, NOAA chose to remove satellite input into their global ocean estimation and not make any attempt to operationally use Argo data in the process. This resulted in a jump of 0.2C or more and ‘a new ocean warmth record’ in July. ARGO tells us this is another example of NOAA’s inexplicable decision to corrupt data to support political agendas."

Ocean surface temperatures depends on the underlying current. The slower the current the higher the temperature. And there has been no study showing causation or correlation between ocean current and atmospheric co2. The issue is not so much ocean surface temperature but the totality of ocean thermal content.

[JanBjernfalk]

09:50 PM on 09/17/2009

Surface temps (as opposed to deeper temps) are also greatly affected by wind and rain. Wind causes surface evaporation, which then cools the water.

Hurricanes and other cyclones can be a big source of surface water cooling this time of year. Just curious, how is your hurricane season going so far?

(here is a hint):
http://www.coaps.fsu.edu/~maue/tropical/global_running_ace.jpg

[realpolitic]

07:59 AM on 09/18/2009

Well, first of all you do not need cyclones to cause winds. Secondly, the article above (which you probably did not read anyway) tells us that ocean temperatures averaged 62.5 degrees Fahrenheit in the June-August period, 1.04 degree higher than normal for the period. And for August, they were the warmest for August on record. So, your question of what's cooling surface waters is, of course, silly and ideological. The real question is why are they warming so significantly? But your post shows the alternative reality deniers live in!

[realpolitic]

08:25 AM on 09/18/2009

Some guy named Joe D'Aleo, a devout denier and former weatherman, says he has inside knowledge about NOAA's methodology, going so far to say that "ARGO tells us this is another example of NOAA’s inexplicable decision to corrupt data to support political agendas" and the deniers take his word as gospel. It is hilarious. Of course, The Argo system of floats is monitored by the U. of Cal. San Diego and they are far too responsible to use inflammatory language like that. But deniers eat it up!

The ARGO float system, after correcting for measurement errors, also shows the world ocean has actually been warming since 2003.

Further, D'Aleo has a history of making inane and false statements about warming. He wrote:

"12 Facts about Global Climate Change That You Won’t Read int he Popular Press"

1 Temperatures have been cooling since 2002, even as carbon dioxide has continued to rise.

2 Carbon dioxide is a trace gas and by itself will produce little warming.

3 CO2 has been totally uncorrelated with temperature over the last decade, and significantly negative since 2002.

4 CO2 is not a pollutant, but a naturally occurring gas.

5 Reconstruction of paleoclimatological CO2 concentrations demonstrates that carbon dioxide concentration today is near its lowest level since the Cambrian Era some 550 million years ago, when there was almost 20 times as much CO2 in the atmosphere as today ”

6 Temperature changes lead, not lag, CO2 changes on all time scales.

Need I go on!

[realpolitic]

04:43 PM on 09/17/2009

Exclusive: New NSIDC director Serreze explains the “death spiral” of Arctic ice, brushes off the “breathtaking ignorance” of blogs like WattsUpWithThat


"But Anthony Watts of the Watts Up With That website is one of the hard-core deniers. Not content to simply dispute the science with disinformation, he attacks climate scientists. Watts said ealier this year that NASA’s James Hansen is “no longer a scientist.” But then Watts routinely smears all climate scientists, approvingly reprinting denier manifestos that claim global warming “is the biggest whopper ever sold to the public in the history of humankind”"

Serreze: I have yet to lose any sleep over what is talked about in WattsUpWithThat or any other similar blog that insists on arguing from a viewpoint of breathtaking ignorance.

http://climateprogress.org/2009/06/05/nsidc-director-serreze-death-spiral-arctic-ice-wattsupwiththat/

Does Watts Up With That denier website have anti-science syndrome?

One tell-tale symptom of ASS is that a website or a writer focuses their climate attacks on non-scientists. If that non-scientist is Al Gore, this symptom alone may be definitive.

The other key symptoms involve the repetition of long-debunked denier talking points, commonly without links to supporting material. Such repetition, which can border on the pathological, is a clear warning sign.

http://climateprogress.org/2009/01/05/anthony-watts-up-with-that-anti-science-denier-website-weblog-awards/

[realpolitic]

08:40 AM on 09/18/2009

Thanks you, HuffPost!

[fumes]

11:00 AM on 09/18/2009

congratulations rp!

and i was so hoping that one of my Keeling Windows posts would win..

[realpolitic]

11:11 AM on 09/18/2009

I was cheering for your post about the butterflys in Greenland. That is always a good one!

[Richard2]

10:08 AM on 09/17/2009

There is a nice response to this topic over at the Watts Up with That website. It questions the credibility of the data used. It appears the government shifted their mix of data sources at this time, to create this nice "bump" in sea temperature. Maybe someone can use the bump at Copenhagen.

An alternative source of ocean temperature data is the ARGO network of ocean buoys. Dr. Willis at JPL did a study a couple of years ago that noted that the Pacific Ocean had stopped warming for several years, and the sea level rise had paused.

It would be meaningful if someone at JPL could do an update on those same ARGO buoys that Dr. Willis worked with.

[lastpost]

09:29 AM on 09/17/2009

“Worlds Oceans Warmest On Record This Summer”

Then ocean thermal energy conversion systems would function even more effectively. Generating power, and raising nutrients from the deep to stimulate an increase in harvestable fish stocks. And providing a cooling effect on the ocean itself.

[burtmckinly]

09:03 AM on 09/17/2009

Nice, maybe I'll be able to ditch the wetsuit and fish yellow tail off the coast of Mendocino soon.

[shockmagog]

12:38 PM on 09/18/2009

Save some room for all us "immigrants" from the parched Southwest.

See you soon!

[burtmckinly]

12:29 AM on 09/19/2009

Cool, bring some Peyote.

[realpolitic]

08:32 AM on 09/17/2009

I have an idea! Ignore all denier comments on this thread and let's see what happens. I bet if ignored, they will eventually go away!

[rblackbird]

03:55 PM on 09/17/2009

Not likely.

[realpolitic]

08:27 AM on 09/17/2009

The warming of our oceans has severe implications regarding everything from losing polar ice to the bleaching of corals. If the warming of oceans may have lagged for awhile, clearly it is setting new records again.

[burtmckinly]

09:03 AM on 09/17/2009

What's wrong with a little change?

[shockmagog]

12:40 PM on 09/18/2009

Tell that to every Republican in general.

Change is not good.

[fumes]

11:35 AM on 09/17/2009

say rp..

as oceans warm they give up CO2..

same goes for your ginger ale!

[realpolitic]

08:57 AM on 09/18/2009

How much do they give up? They are still acidfying, defined by a drop in Ph levels, Mr. Fumes!

[RomeoMD25]

05:58 AM on 09/17/2009

Personally, i am doing my part to reduce the CO2 plantfood in the atmosphere by drinking all the CO2 i can.
Pepsi, Beer, Champagne... bring it on. Let's save the earth by drinking more beer. Kegger, anyone? Makes just as much sense as the
balderdash being passed off as 'science' by the warmers.

About the oceans:
this lie is so crazy i wont even comment on this one.

didn't you know.. the good people of Exxon funding some of the research,and the climate bull

Exxon will enjoy making record profit for less product..
why would Exxon go against "global warming"??(google:Exxon goes green)

and our friends at Goldman will regulate the carbon market..now what can be wrong with that?

[mikefina]

11:47 PM on 09/16/2009

Despite a coolish summer, it sure made for nice swimming off the Cape this summer. Sucks for polar bears, though.

[wadenelson1]

11:18 PM on 09/16/2009

You could pour boiling ocean water on the climate change deniers faces and they'd all swear it was frostbite.

[little old lady]

02:01 AM on 09/17/2009

Or you could put them in a big pot, with a frog, and raise the temperature slowly. They wouldn't notice that they were being cooked to death, and wouldn't believe it even if the frog told them what was happening.

[realpolitic]

08:28 AM on 09/17/2009

Wow, great point!

[realpolitic]

08:30 AM on 09/17/2009

Yes, as then some call this article a "lie" just because they have no idea how to respond! They are intellectually bankrupt!

[loria]

07:55 PM on 09/16/2009

This is not good news. I am sure there will be many talking of how this is just part of a cycle. Someone needs to ask them how the Ice Age was part of the Earth's cycle when it happened 3000 years before God created Earth.