Hillary went to Nuuk last month to discuss the horrors of global warming.
Temperatures in Nuuk from March-May averaged -5.73C, making it the 10th coldest spring on record, and the coldest since 1993.
March April May Spring 1993 -14.3 -6.6 -2.2 -7.70 1989 -13.9 -4.3 -1.2 -6.47 1907 -13.9 -5.6 1.2 -6.10 1983 -13.2 -4.4 -0.7 -6.10 1904 -10.0 -8.4 0.3 -6.03 1918 -9.2 -8 -0.2 -5.80 1990 -9.2 -7.1 -1.1 -5.80 1992 -7.9 -6.2 -3.3 -5.80 1903 -12.4 -4 -0.8 -5.73 2011 -8.5 -8.5 -0.2 -5.73
Yes, 10th coldest on record, following, according to the same dataset, it’s 10th WARMEST winter on record, an autumn that was the warmest on record, and summer 2010, which was Nuuk’s 3rd warmest on record. Interesting indeed.
I’ll bet a lot of ice was melting during the winter at -10C
This is such a simple concept, I am always amazed how many people don’t get it. But then few grasp the most elemental aspects of statistics.
Say, one lives in Placeville, a town where it’s -20C in January, +20C in July. Average is zero C (32F).
Imagine now, winters warm by 10C, summers cool by 5C. So it’s -10C in January, +15C in July. Average is 5C (41F).
Headline news: “Placeville heavily hit by global warming, average temperatures up by 5C”. When the real-life news is, it’s much cooler than before: still very cold in January, and now not even warm in July.
Averages can only tell you so much, and that’s quite little.
Apologies…average is 2.5C of course 😎
Yes, I’d expect a lot of ice to melt in the winter when the sun is up for four hours or less per day and never gets higher than about 10 degrees above the horizon. Good call.
Ice ages are thought to be mild winters with lots of snow, and cool summers where it doesn’t melt.
“Ice ages are thought to be mild winters with lots of snow, and cool summers where it doesn’t melt.”
Indeed, which fits in with what we know about the various Milankovitch Cycles. That was not, however, the case in Nuuk this past year. Last summer was 3rd warmest there as I stated. Last fall was the warmest on record at that station. Your statement is not relevant to this case.
Yes, they had an anomalously warm summer last year. SSTs are about 7C lower this year. You are putting me to sleep.
Glad I could be of service.
Travis, is it your point that Nuuk is really hot in spite of the very cold spring? Or do you like just spouting history? I mean, I do that sometimes too, but I try to stay relevant.
“Travis, is it your point that Nuuk is really hot in spite of the very cold spring?”
No, my point is that just like last summer’s warmth, the “10th coldest spring” on record is an example of natural variability and is not really a big deal.
I do, of course, realize and appreciate that the main point of Steven’s original post was to poke fun at a politician.
IC, …..was just wondering.
Do you think the Gore Effect is contagious? Has the world stopped warming because of all those scientists and politicians jet-setting from one conference to another, all of them carrying the disease?
The 10th coldest spring is relevant, because Hansen, et al have gone wild duirng the same spring with the red crayon, trying to depict an extremely warm Arctic. The data from Nuuk would seem to indicate that they are FOS in that regard.
Andy WeissDC,
My point was also that you can’t have your cake and eat it, too. If the 10th coolest spring is significant, then, the 10th warmest winter, warmest fall, and 3rd warmest summer must also be considered significant; perhaps even more so since that was three seasons in a row compared to one standalone season. I’m sure you have another way of rationalizing it, though. I personally do not see significance in such short-term events.
“Ice ages are thought to be mild winters with lots of snow, and cool summers where it doesn’t melt.”
I had wondered this myself. That perhaps the Jet Stream moves closer to the equator, the pole actually gets a little warmer, but the rest of the hemisphere gets a lot colder, similar to what we’ve been seeing. Snow then simply persists, albedo changes, and the cycle exaggerates.
“The 10th coldest spring is relevant, because Hansen, et al have gone wild duirng the same spring with the red crayon, trying to depict an extremely warm Arctic. The data from Nuuk would seem to indicate that they are FOS in that regard.”
FOS they may be, but Nuuk is far from the high Arctic, and Hansen’s map shows the “red crayon” to be far from Nuuk this spring. Hansen had most of Western Greenland in medium-dark blue crayon, in fact.
GISS has no thermometers in the high Arctic. What are you talking about?
Why not ask Andy? He’s the one seeing red and he seems to act like he knows what he’s talking about.
Travis, it goes to the credibility of Hansen’s extrapolation and interpolation. Yes, uncle Jim has gone red crayon crazy. Apparently, it doesn’t matter what the temps are within the 1200 km radius(or further), he’s just going to color the arctic red. So, in that regard, you’re correct, you can’t have your cake and eat it too, and this is apparently what big Jim is trying to do.
I agree that Hansen tends to go overboard on his scribbling, but in this case, he’s not completely unjustified with his choice of color. Satellite imagery from RSS as well as Dr. Roy Spencer’s UAH both indicate that Nuuk was a poor indicator of Arctic temperatures last month.
http://remss.com/data/msu/graphics/tlt/medium/global/ch_tlt_2011_05_anom_v03_3.png
http://nsstc.uah.edu/climate/
Not so much for April and March either.
http://nsstc.uah.edu/climate/2011/april/APRIL%202011.png
http://nsstc.uah.edu/climate/2011/march/MARCH_2011_map.png
My previous comment is RE: stevengoddard June 18, 2011 at 4:36 pm
The extreme temperature gradients (jumping suddenly from cold to very warm) repeatedly depicted by Hansen seldom if ever exist in the real world. Hansen’s charts have a shocking warm bias in areas with little or no data.