2008 Is the Coldest Year of the 21st Century

dtjohnson writes "Data from the United Kingdom Meteorological Office suggests that 2008 will be an unusually cold year due to the La Nina effect in the western Pacific ocean. Not to worry, though, as the La Nina effect has faded recently so its effect on next year's temperatures will be reduced. However, another natural cycle, the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, is predicted to hold global temperatures steady for the next decade before global warming takes our planet into new warmth. If these predictions are correct, there must be a lot of planetary heat being stored away somewhere ... unless the heat output from the sun is decreasing rather than increasing or the heat being absorbed by the earth is decreasing due to changes in the earth's albedo."

Comments

Weather is not climate

[theCat]

Anyone doing "climate predictions" on less than 80 years of data with 5 year smoothing, drawn from multiple data sources representing well dispersed sampling sites, is kidding themselves.

But go on, look for your ice age if that's what you want to do. Nature doesn't give a bent farthing what you want, you will get what you have coming to you, never fear. And once we hit 400ppm CO2 we're likely to get it up side the head, in spades, and with a twist of lemon.

Re:gore

[bluefoxlucid]

+1 informative

Re:gore

[sm62704]

One downmodding won't hurt. I get downmodded all the time and my karma's excellent. this comment was modded "troll" for asking an honest question; apparently the mods thought I was knocking my favorite browser.

In fact, I'm modding myself down now by checking the "no karma bonus" box. On the whole, slashdot moderation works pretty well, despite a few bad moderations here and there.

Don't sweat it.