2016 Was Second Hottest Year For US In More Than 120 Years of Record Keeping (climatecentral.org)

Last year was the second hottest year for the United States in more than 120 years of record keeping, according to the National Climatic Data Center, marking 20 above-average years in a row. While Georgia and Alaska recorded their hottest year, every state had a temperature ranking at least in the top seven. Climate Central reports: The announcement comes a week before the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which released the U.S. data, and NASA are expected to announce that 2016 set the record for the hottest year globally. Both the global record and the U.S. near-record are largely attributable to greenhouse gas-driven warming of the planet. In addition to the pervasive warmth over the last year, the U.S. also had to deal with 15 weather and climate disasters that each caused more than $1 billion in damage. Together, they totaled more than $46 billion in losses and included several disastrous rain-driven flooding events. These events, along with continued drought, lay bare the challenge for the country to learn how to cope with and prepare for a changing climate, said Deke Arndt, the climate monitoring chief of NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information. The temperature for the contiguous U.S. was 2.9 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average for 2016, displacing 2015 and ranking only behind 2012, when searing heat waves hit the middle of the country. More notable than the back-to-back second place years, Arndt said, was that 2016 was the 20th consecutive warmer-than-normal year for the U.S. and that the five hottest years for the country have all happened since 1998. Those streaks mirror global trends, with 15 of the 16 hottest years on record occurring in the 21st century and no record cold year globally since 1911.

Comments

So, fuck you ...

[CaptainDork]

... in the ass, pussy grabber.

Breadth & Accuracy 120 years ago

[BoRegardless]

How do you reconcile between eras so far apart in both the breadth of measurements and accuracies and methodology between now and then?

I don't think it is possible to any close "degree." Look, people didn't calibrate their thermometers all the time back then, nor did they have the scientific rigor in measurement technique to make sure they had an acceptable "averaging" setup for the measurement on a specific time and circumstance each day.

Re: Breadth & Accuracy 120 years ago

[Mashiki]

99% consensus on phrenology eh? Tough to believe, but even so, phrenology wasn't debunked until someone debunked it.

You know there's no 99% consensus on climate change either. That's been debunked...repeatedly. If you need some help finding that definition of "fake news" that papers like WAPO keep going on about, that's a great one to start with. That consensus? Actually closer to 30% Phrenology was also the big radical theory that was supported in the media as proof of superior intelligence, not in no-name papers but the media of the day, books, the academia itself, the reasoning why women were inferior and shouldn't be allowed higher education and so on. It took nearly 140 years for that theory to finally die it's final death except among extremists. That reminds me on eugenics, that was also the great theory of the day. And quite a few places practiced that until the 1980's.

Unfortunately the country is filled with impressionable people who desperately want to believe their way of life never needs to change, and cling to folks like you as a lifeline instead of critically thinking about ways to improve their situation when the inevitable comes. Interestingly this applies as much to who we (society as a collective) vote for, who we (individually) decide to socialize with, and how we (as communities) determine responses to risk

And there's that part where you don't understand that people know that the world changes. However quite a few people don't believe that impoverishing themselves to do so is a great idea, many believe that if you're going to say...implement a carbon tax. There had best be zero impact on society. So you'd better be ramping up those nuclear power plants and so on. Instead, you see garbage like what's happened in Ontario and Alberta. Where the government and environmentalists scream "the sky is falling" implement something so badly, that it caused the price of fuel to jump $0.10-0.25/L, and people are now making the choice between "keeping their house warm" while it's -30C to -40C outside or simply keeping the roof over their head.

I'm sure you'll be happy to donate a few thousand bucks to me? I'll pass it along to my neighbors who are already having problems keeping their house heated with natural gas. Or maybe to one of the 700k people in Ontario who are 6mo or more in arrears in their electricity payments because those "plans for the environment" have driven them to the edge already.

This won't be a problem much longer

[DoktorMidnight]

Because the data will no longer be collected, and any climate scientists who object will get it in the neck. Everything is fine citizens. Go back to what you were doing.

Re:The earth is

[mrsquid0]

Grow up.

This is why most people are skeptical

[Anonymous Coward]

Ever wonder why people are skeptical of claims like this? Keep in mind that these data are subject to large adjustments instead of basing these claims on anything resembling the raw data. Sure, it's necessary to perform quality control, but the adjustments go far beyond that. In fact, if you plot the quality controlled data prior to the adjustments, the temperature record is mostly flat. However, the adjustments to the data set look like a hockey stick. When you need to adjust the data in order to get a signal, you end up making ridiculous claims like vaccines causing autism. Global warming is about as credible, except that scientists have decided it's true. To their credit, organizations like the National Climatic Data Center are transparent about their adjustments, so we can actually determine that the adjustments are the source of the warming signal.

I respect the scientists at NCDC, though I think their research is very flawed. The problem is that, when someone points out these facts, people show up and aggressively attack anyone who raises these problems. Slashdot has some users who do this, especially people like MightyMartian. Ever wonder why people call global warming a religion? It's because, even when facts clearly show the opposite, people angrily defend the cause. I respect the scientists at NCDC, but so many other people angrily defend global warming like the religion it is.

Re:This is why most people are skeptical

[matbury6017]

Ever wonder why people are skeptical of claims like this?

Because the fossil fuel industry funds media campaigns to discredit sound, reliable climate science? (Please see: http://www.merchantsofdoubt.or...)

Even their own climate science that they were doing in the 1970s? (Please see: https://www.scientificamerican...)

To All The Cimate Deniers Out There

[l0ungeb0y]

For those that somehow think that Mankind has nothing to do with Climate Change -- it is a documented Fact that the amount of Greenhouse Gases produced by Mankind far outweigh the Pollutants naturally produced by the Earth 2.4 MILLION pounds of Co2 are released by us every second -- that's 207.36 BILLION pounds of CO2 every day. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ca... That amount DWARFS the amount of CO2 the Earth produces naturally -- in fact the Earth now produces less than 1% of the CO2 in the atmosphere https://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcan... Additionally, An estimated 14 billion pounds of trash-most of it plastic -- is dumped in the world’s oceans every year. http://seastewards.org/project... So not only has MANKIND completely contaminated and inundated our atmosphere with Green House Gases, we have contaminated and polluted our Oceans to such an extent that it's effecting the Global Ocean Currents and killing off aquatic life Your willful ignorance and refusal to accept anything not stated by FOX News as fact changes nothing, but only assures that your children and their children will suffer and possibly die due to exposure or extreme weather related event because of your ignorance and hatred for Science Furthermore, carrying on arguing that Mankind is not the cause of the Climate Change is so completely deluded, you might as well spend your time smearing the walls of your house with your own feces while claiming ignorance of the cause of the foul odor and swarms of flies all around you -- because that's exactly how crazy you sound

The Desperation is strong here

[Crashmarik]

How many times have I heard it's weather not climate applied to the U.S. Regional numbers ?

Anyway, It's kind of amazing that 100% of the reported warming in the U.S. comes from adjustments to the raw data

https://realclimatescience.com...

Whats more those adjustments perfectly correlate to the increase in CO2 levels

Oh my

So 1.9% of the planet is warmer...

[Tulsa_Time]

Divide the area of the U.S. by the area of the world: 1. Proportion of total surface area: Area of U.S.: 3,790,000 sq. mi. Earth's total surface area: 197,000,000 sq. mi. 3,790,000 / 197,000,000 = 0.0192385787 = about 1.9 %

Re:The earth is

[budgenator]

So true. This planet's going to be doing fine, a few species might not make it, but then again, I'm not so sure that certain critters going extinct is such a bad thing. That homo sapiens for example sure is a cancer to the world, and throughout its existence there have been ice caps. One can only hope that their demise also means his.

See there it is, this Global Warming Alarmism is really about self-loathing and anti-humanism.