The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climate Data Center reports that this past June had the second highest globally averaged land and sea temperature ever recorded. Yet folks in many parts of Canada and the US experienced a cool and wet June.
This figure explains how it happened. It turns out that other parts of the world, the north and eastern Pacific, north-western Atlantic, Africa, Southern Europe, and Siberia were much warmer than normal. Averaged over the globe, the relatively cooler interior of North America got canceled out.
Of particular interest is the warmth of Siberia. That's where one of the feared tipping points could happen: melting permafrost could release large quantities of methane and carbon dioxide and accelerate global warming.
For more, read this post by Joe Romm
2 comments:
It sure as hell isn't cool here on Vancouver Island. Even our high-elevation snowpack is totally gone and the outlook into August is hot, sunny and dry. That's just dandy for the tourists and tourism industry but it's miserable for forestry workers, the forest themselves and the wildlife in that ecosystem.
Yes, I can see the red dots on the map where you are.
Personally I will benefit from the cool wet summer here: big juicy pears from my backyard.
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