Summer 2010 Hottest On Record, New Data Suggest

ALBANY, N.Y. — New numbers confirm what the sweaty brows of Northeasterners have been saying for months: The summer of 2010 was a record-breaking scorcher.

Preliminary figures provided by the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University on Friday show 28 cities from Washington, D.C., to Caribou, Maine, set record highs for average temperature from March through August.

A large swath of the country sweltered in early August, when scorching temperatures and high humidity made it feel like at least 100 degrees in many places and prompted heat advisories for 18 states. While unrelenting heat is the norm in the Deep South, it's unusual in places like Burlington, Vt., and Portland, Maine, which saw their hottest spring and summer in more than a century.

The temperatures are consistent with a global pattern of severe heat-related weather this summer. Meteorologists say 17 nations have recorded all-time-high temperatures this year, more than in any other year.

Back in the normally temperate Northeast, the records are expected to stand. The remaining days of August are forecast to be hot with readings around 90 in many areas of the Mid Atlantic and Northeast.

The average temperature for a 30-day month is calculated by adding the high and low temperatures of each day and dividing by 60.

Art DeGaetano of the Northeast Regional Climate Center in Ithaca, N.Y., said the normal average temperature for March through August in Manhattan's Central Park is 62.5 degrees, and this year it was 67.5. The previous record high was 66.3 in 1991.

For June through August, the historic average for Central Park is 73.9 degrees, and it was 77.8 this year. The previous record high was 77.3 in 1966.

In Philadelphia, the March-August average this year was 68.9 degrees, surpassing 1991's record of 67.7. At Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., this year's average of 68.2 beat the 1991 record of 66.4, and in Caribou, Maine, this year's spring-summer average of 54.5 degrees beat the old record of 53.5 set in 1979.

A heat wave from July 4-9 brought oppressive humidity and temperatures in the upper 90s and low 100s in many areas of the Northeast, breaking records from Maine to West Virginia.

Meteorologists caution against reading too much into the hot weather, saying such a short-term weather pattern alone cannot be interpreted as a sign of global climate change.

"Last summer was quite a bit below normal," said meteorologist Brian Edwards, of Accuweather in State College, Pa. "It's just another portion of the cycle of ups and downs that we've been going through."

"We've been under a high-pressure ridge, especially from March through late July," said meteorologist Hugh Johnson at the National Weather Service in Albany, N.Y. When the jet stream is forced northward, as it has been this summer, the region to the south of it gets high pressure with sunshine and warmer air, Johnson said.

"Last summer was the opposite," Johnson said. "We were under a trough much of the summer, making it unusually rainy and cool."

That was the case this summer in southern California, which had the chilliest July on record.

The National Climatic Data Center reported that July was the second-warmest on record worldwide, and 2010 is on track to be the hottest year.

Atmospheric scientists have grown increasingly concerned about human-induced global warming in recent years, though political pressures and fierce arguments about climate change have slowed efforts to develop solutions.

___

Online:

Northeast Regional Climate Center: http://www.nrcc.cornell.edu/

Comments

[QuarkWizard]

08:43 PM on 10/06/2010

We Humans are quite Powerful you know? Not only are we causing the Global Warming, which I prefer to call Climate Fluctuation, right here on Earth but our seemingly unlimited Power is also effecting the Polar Ice Caps on Mars. We Humans are melting them too!
Want proof? How about one of the best sources of scientific information in America - NASA. Go visit:
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2003/07aug_southpole/
and you'll see we are seemingly even more Powerful than God.
Now I need a nap, I'm all worn out from all my super-powers traveling anywhere from 35 million to 250 million miles to reach Mars and melt those ice caps. It's tiring being like God... Whew!

[maxwells]

03:00 PM on 08/31/2010

Here's some recent exposes of humongous funding of global warming denial and right wing causes by the billionaire (from coal and oil interests) Koch brothers, in order to rid themselves of taxes, corporate regulation, safety notes for the middle class like Social Security/Medicare/funding public schools, and essentially anything interfering with their will to rule ala the deMedicis of old.

www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer

www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/opinion/29rich.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Koch%20brothers&st=cse

[StephenBP]

09:06 PM on 08/31/2010

The Koch brothers seem to be the current kingpins of the global warming denialism movement.

Maybe they will be separated from their ill gotten wealth by a RICO indictment and conviction in the near future.

Wouldn't that be special!

[maxwells]

09:40 PM on 08/31/2010

Yes, it would, StephenBP.

There's also a distinct peasants with pitchforks (and guns) aspect to the teabagger movement. So, hypothetically, it might get interesting for the Koch brothers, if any of those earnest teabagger folk ever figured out that the Koch brothers have been punking them into supporting an agenda designed only to further enrich just the Kochs.

Then again, I doubt that'll ever happen. And that's because deep down, it seems that most teabaggers really feel way more secure with a rigid pecking order (Koch, Murdoch, Coors, Waltons) at the top, so long as THEY'RE not at the very bottom (which is why a president with dark skin seems so to threaten to upset that perceived proper pecking order).

But you know all this StephenBP. So, here I'm just preaching to the choir.

Instead, the people who could really use some clueing in will mostly avoid reading links people like me provide because well basically, they're afraid to learn anything that upsets their applecarts.

I.e., THEY'RE BASICALLY CHICKENs!

[maxwells]

10:03 PM on 08/31/2010

Then again, teabaggers, if they weren't such mindless chickens, might also note that there's some very dark-skinned, very scary people who fund radical Islam, and who are also at the top of not just the global pecking order, but at the reins of Fox News.

thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/saudi-royal-backs-imam-and-fox-news/

But the Koch brothers don't care about any of that. They just want unlimited amounts of money and all the lifestyle and ego that that money can support.

[LINY01]

07:09 PM on 08/30/2010

Other places that are going through their winter are having extremes as well. I believe its just natural climate change--been going on since the beginning of time. In fact, if it weren't for climate change, who knows? we might be running from dinosaurs trying to find their breakfast.

Humans, no doubt, have gravely polluted this planet of ours but I don't buy into this whole global warming scheme that is nothingmore than a ruse to try and tax us and grab more money for something else.

Antarctic cold snap kills millions of aquatic animals in the Amazon.
Bolivia is a country of ecological extremes. But during the Southern Hemisphere's recent winter, unusually low temperatures in part of the country's tropical region hit freshwater species hard, killing an estimated 6 million fish and thousands of alligators, turtles and river dolphins.
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100827/full/news.2010.437.html

[getoffmedz]

10:32 PM on 08/30/2010

Human induced climate change generates EXTREMES in temperature.

Now a fact.

Deniers will argue that fact until they burst into flames or freeze to death.

; o }

[nomadrdw]

03:20 PM on 08/31/2010

just so you know, there is 65 million years separating man and dinosaurs. had they not died out there would be no mammals today larger than a rat. climate change is just that, it will get a lot hotter in some places, a little hotter in some places, some places will be under water and places that are green now will become deserts or jungles. and some places will become much colder. the weather will become even more unpredictable than it is now.
people don't understand that the human race is only here because we were lucky enough to have reached this stage during a very unusually stable time period in our climatic history.

[LINY01]

06:47 PM on 08/31/2010

I do know but thanks for pointing it out :-) I was just saying.

And to your other points, I agree and I still beleive that it is a natural cycle. No doubt pollution has ruined our planet in many ways but I'm sure the earth will recover once we, the fleas, are gone.

I don't see anypoint in getting hysterical about climate change. It's best to be a good steward of the earth while here but the histrionics over it are a real turn off to me. See above where people that choose not to believe are called "deniers" as if its a vile thing to disagree with what everyone says I should believe. And even worse, to associate it with a political bent. That tells me that this is a movement more so that truth. Because, climate change, is neither democrat or repug, it just is and it's science but it seems many have made it a political issue, another turn off to me.

The poster below said it best, those that believe and those that don't will never agree except maybe on the fact that humans are not very good stewards of either flora or fauna.

Also there are just as many sites that disprove the global warming science as there are those that prove it. Posting the long list would be pointless as anyone can find them.

[maab76]

03:41 PM on 08/30/2010

Responding to Tom Joad:

While camping on the UP, we all waded in Superior. Our youngest actually got full wet and swam near the shore in late August. Needless to say, none of us joined him!

Winter comes early up there - frost by mid August complete with forest color and often snow by mid September. Nope, I do not want to move back to that area. Lived on the Iron Range for several years, but after 56 below, I moved South!

[Ho Hum]

03:36 PM on 08/30/2010

Of course it's hot. It's summertime in case you didn't notice. In my section of the country, we've had two cool summers in a row. Wet, too, after nearly eight years of drought. Hot in one area, cool in another, wet in one area, not in another --- so what?? The weather is gonna do whatever the weather does. It has nothing to do with global warming or any of that other nonsense being spouted by the phobics. I have a name for it: sciencehyperism. The scientists would actually have you believe you can DO something to change the weather!! How ridiculous. Besides, those idiots confuse pollution with weather all the time. The sun controls what happens here on earth, not some loony scientist with a theory. Don't worry - it's gonna get cool again in a summer or two. Stop whining.

[nomadrdw]

03:23 PM on 08/31/2010

once again, let us try to educate, weather is local and locally unpredictable to a large extent. climate is world wide and is NOT as unpredictable. learn the science and see the effects instead of drinking the cool aid that the GOP is giving you along with the energy companies that profit from raping the world.

[Collielady]

01:15 PM on 08/30/2010

Those who continue to debate the global warming / greenhouse gas connection will never be convinced of it. Therefore, the argument should also focus on the health hazards associated with our polluted air and earth. Hard to deny that.

[LINY01]

07:11 PM on 08/30/2010

Very true. Polluted we have done.Global warming, eh..not buying that one.

[PigsOnSoma]

09:54 AM on 08/30/2010

Hottest temperatures, lightning during blizzards, microburts and tornados on the rise where they are uncommon. Nope - no global warming, nothing to see here. Just go shopping.

[BigShotBob]

04:56 PM on 08/31/2010

Weather. Climate. Not the same thing.

[BlackbirdHighway]

08:56 AM on 08/30/2010

The Earth has not had even a single month, let alone a full year, that was below average temperature since the 80's.

[RobAlb]

03:43 PM on 08/30/2010

I feel that this is correct, but I would like to see data that corroborates it. That would add credibility. It's all too easy to make a claim without offering evidence. Nevertheless, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if what you say is accurate.

[BlackbirdHighway]

08:51 AM on 08/30/2010

"It's just another portion of the cycle of ups and downs that we've been going through."

Yes, except the ups are higher than the previous ups, and the downs are not as low as the previous downs. There is an overall increasing temperature trend.

[SoCalHotOne]

11:50 PM on 08/29/2010

This site allows you to pull up station data from any weather station in the world, sourced from NOAA, Hadley CRU, and the UK Met Office, as well as sort, filter, average, etc.

http://www.appinsys.com/GlobalWarming/climate.aspx

[LeFlaneur]

12:18 AM on 08/30/2010

oh look. appinsys again.

[SoCalHotOne]

03:41 AM on 08/30/2010

This article mentions both Portland, Maine, and Burlington, Vermont. Neither of these locations have experienced any "global warming".

http://www.appinsys.com/GlobalWarming/climgraph.aspx?pltparms=GHCNT100AJanDecI188020090900110AR42572606000x

http://www.appinsys.com/GlobalWarming/climgraph.aspx?pltparms=GHCNT100AJanDecI188020090900110AR42572617000x

[philinmedford]

09:28 PM on 08/29/2010

I think a lot of folks here read the first half of the article and stop there.

Meteorologists caution against reading too much into the hot weather, saying such a short-term weather pattern alone cannot be interpreted as a sign of global climate change.

"Last summer was quite a bit below normal," said meteorologist Brian Edwards, of Accuweather in State College, Pa. "It's just another portion of the cycle of ups and downs that we've been going through."

That was the case this summer in southern California, which had the chilliest July on record.

[MikeWebster]

09:56 PM on 08/29/2010

True - but globally we have over 17 countries that have posted their all time highest temperatures. This is clearly beyond relating a single weather event to climate change. That can't be done with any confidence. The global temperature rise and the huge long list of countries breaking records, is able to be tied to climate change.

Having said that, there's no reason to suggest that it won't be cooler again next year - just that the global average temperatures rise gradually year to year, and an increase in frequencey of extreme climate events also occurs.

[SFTor]

03:48 AM on 08/30/2010

17 countries out of 195. That's not that shocking, and doesn't quite make for "a huge long list."

Global average temperatures have not risen since 1998. There is no increase in extreme weather events.

[ancientmarinader]

10:47 PM on 08/29/2010

Another hot (or hottest) year is just one data point.

The fact remains that the hottest years on record have all been in recent years. That trend line is what matters.

[SoCalHotOne]

11:36 PM on 08/29/2010

There are no actual thermometer records for the world temperature. There only individual weather stations, most of which have only been in operation a few decades. Of the individual records that go back more than 100 years, the hottest years are not in recent years.

[kroyall]

08:54 PM on 08/29/2010

Nobody cares.

[Gin1234]

09:26 PM on 08/29/2010

Boy do you have that wrong.

[brahdog]

09:38 PM on 08/29/2010

until it's too late to care

[Richard729]

08:50 PM on 08/29/2010

All serious climate studies confirm global warming is occurring and has accelerated since the beginning of the industrial age when gazillions of tons of coal ash and sulfur dioxide were being pumped into the atmosphere unabated.

Now that it is becoming a major health and environmental concern all the dupes of anti-regulation corporations, i.e. multi-billionaire Koch brothers funders of the Tea Partiers, are pouring money into propaganda to discredit and ridicule citizens who want to live in a world where they can raise their families in a healthy environment.

The global warming deniers think all they have to do to disprove global warming is point to a specific area that actually did cool in the past year and say, "Aha!, see, it was colder where I live and we got record snowfall!" Ergo, one year (and in some cases only a couple of months) equals global cooling.

The link below chronicles the colder/warmer months and even states that the period through 3/10/10 was a cooler than normal winter.

Global warming deniers seize on this statistic as their "proof" while totally ignoring the rest of the documented climate data. But, as we've seen over and over the Republican Party of No and their Tea Party spawn continue to distort the truth and the scientific facts.

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/press.shtml

[MikeWebster]

10:00 PM on 08/29/2010

Absolutely right. It's the kind of logic that would use the decrease in temperatures going from summer to winter as proof positive of a cooling trend that will lead to an ice age.

Certainly these guys (Koch et al.) have lost any right to be considered as any better than the most evil and destructive people from world history.

[SFTor]

03:50 AM on 08/30/2010

Pointing to specific areas that have had hot summers is exactly what AGW alarmists are doing in this case. "Temperatures in Central Park" would be an excellent example.

[Justamailman]

08:24 PM on 08/29/2010

Can Al and I say, "I told you so" when we all burn up by the sun?

[GuiltD]

08:36 PM on 08/29/2010

Didn't you read the article in huffpost about how the Carbon Tax that Al Gore and co have set up in the UN is a total fraud and does not help the cause, while the central bank is going to collect tons of cash and Gore is making billions? I'm all for fighting global warming, but not with the wrong hands. We have to be careful about the ones banking on this.

[Justamailman]

08:56 PM on 08/29/2010

Well, at least he brought attention to it years and years ago. If he is now using it for self or to profit from it, I am disheartened. This ex-mailman will continue on course and has not wavered or profited by global warming. I know where we live, you must have your auto go through an emissions test and that feels somewhat bogus and discriminatory towards lower income citizens. The reformulated gas also seems to be unworthy in a few ways, you seem to get less MPG, some added ingredients might be more apt to cause cancer and using ethanol was a boondoggle that used food nutrition that a hungry world desperately needs. It seems good intentions are corrupted by profiteers, no?

[Gin1234]

09:28 PM on 08/29/2010

I've really gotten to not trust Al Gore. Not because I don't believe in global warming, I do.
But he has gotten more and more distant, futher away from regular people the whole time. Now, he has just about disappeared and is living in something like a 9 million dollar mansion. It is just very disappointing.

[jobrien1950]

08:18 PM on 08/29/2010

I have apologized to my child for this ridiculous predicament; I hope his generation can take care of this . . . hopefully it won't be too late.