You hear it said — I even say it — during mild winters: “If this is global warming, I like it.”
Sure, March was warm. Then the numbers came out, and we learned just how unusual March (and the winter of 2011-12) was.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, March was the warmest in the United States since it began keeping regular weather records in 1895 with more than 15,000 high temperatures set in the month, mainly in the eastern third of the country.
And it wasn’t only March. The first three months of the year were the warmest ever recorded in the lower 48 states with an average temperature of 42 degrees. That is 6 degrees above the long- term average. To put that in perspective, it is theorized that a worldwide increase in the planet’s overall temperature of only one degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) will mean major changes to the earth’s ecosystems.
Figures show warming is real — and frightening | The Poughkeepsie Journal | poughkeepsiejournal.com
The amazing thing about weather is that when it is unusually warm one place, it is unusually cold someplace else. Alaska had one of the coldest months on record in March.
To understand how incredibly stupid this author is, you could do a study of baseball games and find that in 2012 – in 100% of of games played – one team or other has scored more runs than the mean for the game.
If you only measure places with above normal temperatures, you are going to find that the mean is above normal. March temperatures in the US vary by 15 degrees from year to year.
CONTIGUOUS UNITED STATES Climate Summary
Here’s another baseball analogy :
Our weather records (at best) go back 130 years. The current inter-glacial is 11,000 years old. Trying to draw conclusions from our records is the equivalent of trying to determine the best players in MLB over a 162-game season based on a 2-game sample size.
If we had listened…..
Global temperatures have been going down…
Arctic and Antarctic Ice has been going up…
Sea levels have been falling….
Hurricanes and tornadoes are normal…
Droughts, floods are normal…
etc etc
CO2 levels are rising at the same rate….
But if we had listened, we would all be living like some third world country….
…and they would all be taking credit for saving the world
….from something normal
To put that in perspective, it is theorized that a worldwide increase in the planet’s overall temperature of only one degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) will mean major increases in scaremongering and more funding initiatives.
So let all hold hands and save the world!
.
Sorry Earth Day got to me.
Ice used to be 2 miles thick in New York.
Now it isn’t. It melted.
But it still snows.
A lot.
Even in late April 2012…
http://rochester.ynn.com/content/top_stories/581522/snow-warning-starting-sunday-night/
And ice is still going to keep freezing and melting wherever it can… for a long long time. ps: most of the Arctic is still below zero F. Not much rapid melting there.