The SSTs in the Gulf have been running perhaps 2 deg F above pre 1970 values. Warm waters also extend across the tropical Atlantic north of the equator in the region favored for hurricanes, and hence the recent NOAA forecast for an above average hurricane season (although the La Nina is fading and will likely be over by August, so there may be more competition from the Pacific).
Of those 2 degrees F, 1 can be assigned to human influence.
– Kevin Trenberth NCAR Director
Sea surface temperatures around the US are running well below normal, with the most anomalously cold water in the Gulf of Mexico at 2C below normal.
http://weather.unisys.com/surface/sst_anom.gif
Land temperatures in the US have also been below normal. One might think that the director of NCAR would check basic weather information before spreading misinformation to the press?
http://www.hprcc.unl.edu/products/maps/acis/MonthTDeptUS.png
Alarmists are good at wrong SST figures:
http://bobtisdale.wordpress.com/2011/05/24/good-and-bad-news-for-masters-and-romm/
Trenberth has now been reduced to talking about weather events instead of climate. He should have listened to the ‘climate expert’ George Monbiot of the Guardian. 😉
Monbiot has been trashed so many times that I am starting to think he will soon back off from his of co2 attribution. He spouts off without digging deep. It seems as if the BBC is doing the same thing. 😉 Has an order been given from on high???
Speaking of SST
Cool water have started to form west of the Galapagos Island
March thru May 2011:
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_update/sstanim.gif
This is a classic case of setting up a ficticious straw man. Nothing new for these guys.
He conveniently references the era just before satellite measurements…….
What mechanism does he propose that enables humans to raise the temperature of the Gulf by 1 F over 40 years. And to what depth have we done this?
Given this statement, “The SSTs in the Gulf have been running perhaps 2 deg F above pre 1970 values.” And given the SST map, the Kev must be asserting that the pre-1970 values were about 4 degrees below normal. and mankind can be credited with partially stabilizing the Gulf’s SSTs!
So, to the big Kev, I say, thanks for the recognition, we do what we can.
Have you been watching the SST around North Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk?
They have been seriously cold for quite awhile, is this pushed there by La Nina?