The hottest year ever

You probably heard or read it, "2007 could be the warmest year ever". That story coupled with recent strange weather has the media humming the global warming blues again, ginning up images of drowning Polar Bears (it's currently 40 below in northern Canada) and melting glaciers. There's ad revenue in them thar hills for the big boys but such gaps of nuance represent an opening for bloggers.

Let's get a grip for a moment. First, if 2007 is the warmest ever it will only be within the realm of the hundred years or so of official records. But while we're getting all scientific here, check out the following thumbnails. They represent historical temperature data from NASA for a few sites within proximity of Memphis, Tennessee, and weren't photoshopped from GOP.com (oh no, graphs):



Notice that only Memphis, an urban area, has warmed slightly over the past 30 years. The others have either stayed the same or cooled. The slight warming could be the result of carbon or the dreaded 'urban heat island' effect. Does anyone know for sure? The other sites are rural and therefore do not suffer from the trapping of heat at night like the concrete jungles and as a result don't show warming.

But, but, AC, the real warming is occuring in the polar regions. True, as evidenced here:



Fairbanks, Alaska does show a warming, but all these graphs also show another common thread--a warming that occurred in the 20s and 30s, hardly explained by greenhouse gases.


In other weatherman news, Max Mayfield has now officially retired from his job as Director of the National Hurricane Center. I thought Mayfield did an outstanding job in his short tenure, faced probably with probably the worst stretch of hurricanes in our history.

Now that he's gone and no longer muzzled by the science-hating ghouls of the Bush White House he's free to express his personal views, which he wasted no time in doing :

"You don't want the federal government to be your first-responders," he said. "The government can't do everything for people and it shouldn't, or else you create a culture of dependence."

Geez, does James Hansen know about this?

His successor, X. William (Bill) Proenza (the guy on the right) was the former chief of the NWS Southern Region and will do a fine job. Mr. Proenza is a lot more "TV-genic" than Mayfield. Matter of fact here's a prediction--the media may find it hard to shut him up.