What Global Warming?
(Climate • Nature)
2008 shapes up as the 10th-warmest on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization. They also took a look at the last year in weather, with plenty of swell highlights including:
“A remarkable occurrence in 2008 was the dramatic disappearance of nearly one-quarter of the massive ancient ice shelves on Ellesmere Island. Ice 70 metres thick, which a century ago covered 9 000 km2, has been chiselled down to just 1 000 km2 today…”
Meanwhile, the Green Grok shows that all of the Top 10 Warmest Weather Years occurred within the past 11 years.
Huh. Probably just coinky-dink.
Nevertheless, I’m thinking it won’t hurt to ramp up my experiments in testing subtropical fruits and flowering plants for cold tolerance here on the One-Acre Ranch, strategically located in USDA Growing Zone 9, but apparently headed toward Zone 10 at least temporarily.
→ B.Dunn, Dec 26, 2008, 02 47 pm
Hope your Christmas was stellar, BD and I also wish that you and your smile will rarely ever be separated in ’09.
Make it count.
Best,
LK
— Laurie Kendrick Dec 26, 03:53 pm #
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It is maybe warmer now, than it used
to be here, but going by the memoirs of the early settlers, I doubt it. I have read a bunch, but nobody talks about snow, or frozen ground, or stuff like that – I think they would. The ones from up where I come from, south Arkansas, they mention the weather like that. These guys didn’t, generally. Leads me to belive it was much like now.
Beware The Kendrick.
The jaws that bite.
The claws that snatch.
jd
— jdallen Dec 26, 06:11 pm #
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I’m hoping for a better New Year for all of us, Laurie, or at the least an extra seat belt.
jd, I suspect that we’re in a warming cycle, but even though I blogged it, I don’t put huge stock in the Top 10 Warmest Years as science, since it seems like science couldn’t have been keeping exacting weather statistics for more than the last one-one thousandth of the latest quarter % of history.
Still, if we could get through the next 10 or 20 winters with no day-long sustained temps below, say, 28 degrees, I’m thinking I could grow some mangoes and avocados without having to baby the trees along for the first two years.
On the other hand, if the temps start hitting the mid-90s on a sustained basis in, say, late April, we’re going to have a hell of a time setting tomatoes.
— Bob Dec 27, 07:57 am #
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