Yep, Still Getting Warmer

Credit: <a href="http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/images/map-blended-mntp-201008.gif">NOAA</a>.


The “BREAKING: World Getting Hotter!” news shouldn’t be, well, news anymore. And for people who already tuned in on global warming, it’s not. But considering we still have the senior senator from Oklahoma insisting that the planet is actually getting cooler, perhaps it’s worth noting the latest data indicates that the first eight months of 2010 are now tied with the same period in 1998 for the warmest on record.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Wednesday that the period of January through August 2010 is tied with the first eight months of 1998 for highest combined land and ocean surface temperatures worldwide. The combined temperature was 1.21 degrees Fahrenheit (or 0.67 degrees Celsius) above the average for the 20th century.

The period of June to August alone qualifies as the second warmest on record (1998 was the warmest)—which many people around the world can attest to, given the major heat waves this summer. As NOAA notes, “Warmer-than-average conditions dominated land areas of the globe.” Eastern Europe, eastern Canada and parts of eastern Asia all experienced warmer weather, though other regions like Australia, central Russia and southern South America, experienced “cooler-than-average” temperatures.

While climate skeptics like Sen. Jim Inhofe were happy to trot out record snowfall over the winter as evidence that the planet isn’t warming, they haven’t had a whole lot to say about the summer heat. Of course, climate scientists would point out that no single period of weeks or months is indicative of whether or not the climate is changing. This is about climate, after all, not weather. But the latest data does fit into the long-term warming pattern that scientists have repeatedly observed.

More Mother Jones reporting on Climate Desk

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate