Latest Climate Stories
New 1981-2010 'normals' to be released this week According to the 1981-2010 normals to be released by NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) on July 1, temperatures across the United States were on average, approximately 0.5 degree F warmer than the 1971-2000 time period.Normals serve as a 30 year baseline average of important climate variables that are used to understand average climate conditions at any location and serve as a consistent point of reference. The new normals update the...
2010 one of the two warmest years on recordWorldwide, 2010 was one of the two warmest years on record according to the 2010 State of the Climate report, which NOAA released today. The peer-reviewed report, issued in coordination with the American Meteorological Society, was compiled by 368 scientists from 45 countries. It provides a detailed, yearly update on global climate indicators, notable climate events and other climate information from every continent.This year's report tracks 41...
Everything has its price, even the weather. New research indicates that routine weather events such as rain and cooler-than-average days can add up to an annual economic impact of as much as $485 billion in the United States.The study, led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), found that finance, manufacturing, agriculture, and every other sector of the economy is sensitive to changes in the weather. The impacts can be felt in every state."It's clear that our economy...
PORTLAND, Ore., June 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Climate Savers Computing Initiative (CSCI), a global consortium dedicated to reducing the energy consumption of end-to-end computing, today announced that Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd has become a member of the CSCI Board of Directors. Samsung Electronics joins CSCI board members from Cisco, Emerson, F5 Networks, Google, Intel, Juniper Networks, Microsoft, and World Wildlife Fund as a leader in driving the deployment and adoption of energy...
There have been instances in Earth history when average temperatures have changed rapidly, as much as 10 degrees Celsius (18 degrees Fahrenheit) over a few decades, and some have speculated the same could happen again as the atmosphere becomes overloaded with carbon dioxide.New research lends support to evidence from numerous recent studies that suggest abrupt climate change appears to be the result of alterations in ocean circulation uniquely associated with ice ages."There might be...
Global temperatures in May were the 10th warmest for any May since 1880, when records began being kept, while the extent of Arctic sea ice was the third smallest for any May on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported on Thursday.The monthly analysis from NOAA's National Climatic Data Center showed that last month's combined global land and ocean average surface temperature was 59.5F (15.30 Celsius), which is 0.9 F (0.5 C) above the 20th century average of...
A new study of how storms are generated could improve rainfall prediction in dry regions of Africa, where drought and short growing seasons are common.A team of scientists from the UK, France and Australia used satellite observations of the Sahel region of West Africa to demonstrate that brief changes in soil moisture over areas of just tens of kilometres can affect storm generation. The results are published online in Nature Geoscience on 12 June 2011.The monsoon can arrive abruptly in the...
According to a new study on climate change, researchers project that, by 2050, the coolest summers in the tropics and parts of the northern hemisphere will still be hotter than the hottest summers seen since the 1950s if global warming continues its rapid upswing. "The permanent emergence of unprecedented summer heat" could be felt in tropical regions in Africa, Asia and South America within the coming decades, according to the study, being published in the journal Climate Change Letters...
We often think of rainforests and coral reefs as hotspots for biodiversity, but mountains are treasure troves for species too "”especially in the tropics, scientists say. But what drives montane biodiversity? The diversity of plants and animals in tropical mountain ranges may have something to do with the stable seasonal temperatures found in the tropics relative to higher latitudes, says a new study by scientists working at the US National Evolutionary Synthesis Center.The study, based on...
The tropics and much of the Northern Hemisphere are likely to experience an irreversible rise in summer temperatures within the next 20 to 60 years if atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations continue to increase, according to a new climate study by Stanford University scientists. The results will be published later this month in the journal Climatic Change.In the study, the Stanford team concluded that many tropical regions in Africa, Asia and South America could see "the permanent...
Latest Climate Reference Libraries
Climate change is a substantial and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods of time ranging from decades to millions of years. It might be a change in the average weather conditions, or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions. Climate change is a result of factors that include oceanic processes, biotic processes, variations in solar radiation received buy Earth, volcanic eruptions, and plate tectonics, and human induced alterations...
Four major events occurred yesterday, the first being the formation of Tropical Storm Ernesto, which is now located just east of the Windward Islands with winds near 45 knots. The second was the heat in the Southern Plains as many places saw temps over 100F with heat index values near 105-110 for the region. High temperatures are again one of the main story makers across the country. 100 degree temperatures continue to plague Texas and Oklahoma. Eleven out of the last 14 days in...
September 5: The southwest was encompassed in the monsoon rains yesterday bringing areas of flash flooding to portions of Arizona. Another smaller but large flooding event occurred along the Mississippi Gulf Coast where places in Jackson County received 7inches of rainfall in 2 1/2hours which lead to large flooding problems of already saturated grounds from Isaac-1. The heat persisted in Eastern Texas and into Louisiana and northward into Arkansas as some places felt temps hit the100’s with...
Honolulu is located in the Pacific Ocean and has a mostly marine time climate. Honolulu has a pretty consistent temperature average from month to month. This is a look at the La-Nina impacts on the local area. January 2010: For the month of January it is typical to see average high temps in the 80’s while overnight lows drop into the 70’s. During the El-Nino event January temps were 60% of the month at the normal, while 40% of the month was marked with above temps and 0% of the month...
Being a meteorologist for over thirteen years you start to take note of many things in the atmosphere and how they repeat themselves. Our Climate is no different. The definition of climate is stated as: the collective weather data in regards to moisture and temperature for over 30 years for the same location. So to better understand our climate we need to look at this. First, we have average temperatures for given places based on the 30 year average. Some years the temps are warmer or...
