2005 hottest year on record (in Australia)

Tim Vasquez

Tim Vasquez

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It's hard not to post this, after enjoying an 84-degree day here in Dallas and swatting a mosquito.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/20060...01/s1541414.htm
"2005 hottest year on record -- Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell says new data showing 2005 was Australia's hottest year on record is further evidence of climate change. The Bureau of Meteorology is releasing figures today showing the average temperature last year was 22.89 degrees. It is the highest average temperature in Australia since comprehensive record keeping began in 1910."

I was pretty convinced global warming was a very slow process that couldn't be measured, but this is just strange. My wife Shannon, who keeps up on this, says that some conceptual models floating around suggest that catastrophic global warming could occur on a scale of decades. I'm not about to get my tinfoil hat, but still...

I wonder if NWS/NOAA is logging any annual figures like this.

Has it been cold where you are?

Tim
 
I guess my question is, what year was the hottest prior to 2005, and what year was the coldest? Could just be a random fluctuation in a long-term average.
 
Not just Australia. I saw some stories saying that it was the hottest year on record for the entire globe.

USATODAY: HOTTEST YEAR ON RECORD FOR NORTHERN HEMPISPHERE.

NASA: NASA has released new data projecting that 2005 will be the hottest year on record. Alex Chadwick talks with New York Times science correspondent Andrew Revkin about recent measurements on climate change and evidence of global warming.

We had an unusually warm Autumn this year, when it can get typically 0-10c it was more like 20-25c through the beginning of November. Of course in late November and December it switched to the extreme and became very cold 0/-10c. Now it's a little warmer than I would expect it to be since most of the snow is melting because we keep coming above freezing during the day.

Shane not sure if this awnsers your question because it's globally but look at:
http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/info/warming/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/...32344.stm#graph

That, the ozone hole, the melting of the polar ice caps. Whether it's global warming or some sort of natural cycle it is really quite alarming.


-Scott Olson.
 
I am not going to enter the Global Warming debate, but 2006 started on a record high too for much of eastern Australia.

The closest official temperature reading to my home ( just 5km away ) was 44.6C ( over 112F ). I recorded 43C neat at my home.

I have lived here for 30 years and have not seen over 40C before. I live in a very moderated environment with ocean 2 km away, and a seawater estruary a block away.

Two massive tree ferns that have been with the house since it was built have been burnt almost dead. I guess they will recover, but it is yet another thing I have not seen before.

That been said the last few days have been very mild.
 
2005 was definately a hot year. I will always remember that summer well. For the first time ever, we had the central air running non stop. Most of our spring/summer days have seen temps 30 C or above, and being in southern Ontario, we got the humidity from the lakes so it really felt like hell here.
 
I think the Ice Age theory sounds about right. Perhaps that's the Earth's cycle - The Earth warms which then causes the ice caps to melt... That in turn cools the Earth again, which might cause new polar ice caps to form. The cycle would obviously keep repeating on some large timescale.
 
In the grand scheme of things the earth has almost never been colder than it is right now. Well, it was colder during the last ice age, but only a little. Were actually just between ice ages right now.

This is all pretty moot because the time scales here are huge and its hard to look past the headlines.

You never know though, one big Krakatoa or Tambora type event could tip the scales in the cold direction very easily.
 
Breaking News: My personal weather station just recorded the hottest year on record for Darien, CT.

I forgot to mention that my record period is only 2.5 years. Sounds short doesn't? Well, the 100-150 years that makes up most weather station data (at the major stations) is really short too. My guess is that our current global climate has been around for 100,000 to 1 million years...at least. Does a sample of the last 150 represent that period at all?

This isn't an argument for or against global warming. Its a reality check in mathematics and statistics.
 
I agree Bill... And I think a famous Shane Adams once said something along the lines of humans not being able to destroy Earth - and boy I believe it.

The only thing we will destroy is ourselves - not the environment. A hundred million years from now, we may not be here - but I bet Earth and some form of life will still exist.
 
The earth is big and resilent but is still has a compisition so I think we can certainly alter the atmosphere. Even a small change such as a a slight (1/10s of a centigrade) SST change in the Atlantic and Pacific can cause an event such as the Dust Bowl.

The Earth cycles are always going to be more pronouced. While the Earth is capable of dealing with it's own imbalances it doesn't have the necessary process for maintaing it's compisition in the face of added greenhouse gasses. That's not even to mention all the health effects of pollution with millions of kids getting Asthma from living in cities were there is a constant haze.

Im not 100% convinced either way. Some of the studies and general research consensus gives reason for the need for steps to be taken. But, the obvious lack of fundamental data also gives to uncertainity. So for the sake of reliaizing that it exists after the fact of some sort of climate response I like to error on the side of caution until more data is avaliable on previous short-term/long-term variability and climatic shift patterns.

-Scott.
 
The earth is big and resilent but is still has a compisition so I think we can certainly alter the atmosphere. Even a small change such as a a slight (1/10s of a centigrade) SST change in the Atlantic and Pacific can cause an event such as the Dust Bowl.

The Earth cycles are always going to be more pronouced. While the Earth is capable of dealing with it's own imbalances it doesn't have the necessary process for maintaing it's compisition in the face of added greenhouse gasses. That's not even to mention all the health effects of pollution with millions of kids getting Asthma from living in cities were there is a constant haze.

Im not 100% convinced either way. Some of the studies and general research consensus gives reason for the need for steps to be taken. But, the obvious lack of fundamental data also gives to uncertainity. So for the sake of reliaizing that it exists after the fact of some sort of climate response I like to error on the side of caution until more data is avaliable on previous short-term/long-term variability and climatic shift patterns.

-Scott.
Click to expand...

Well written, Scott!

I'm not one who feels people are to blame for "global warming", but the jury is still out! Which simply means I could be completely wrong. Modern observation only goes back so far...so we are dealing with guess work...not that those doing the guess work aren't very, extraordinarily in fact, brilliant!

The subject isn't completely understood...I suppose this is the main point regarding our "new heat".

Pat
 
Back on topic and the global warming debate aside, Mount Washington also had a very warm summer. 4th warmest on their short 80 year record, but still warm.
 
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