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This Was World's Warmest Recorded Winter, U.S. Government Says

 

 

 

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March 16, 2007 — By Reuters

 

WASHINGTON -- This has been the world's warmest winter since record-keeping

began more than a century ago, the U.S. government agency that tracks weather

reported Thursday.

 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said the combined

global land and ocean surface temperature from December through February was at

its highest since records began in 1880.

 

A record-warm January was responsible for pushing up the combined winter

temperature, according to the agency's Web site, http://www.noaa.gov.

 

" Contributing factors were the long-term trend toward warmer temperatures as

well as a moderate El Nino in the Pacific, " Jay Lawrimore of NOAA's National

Climatic Data Center said in a telephone interview from Asheville, North

Carolina.

 

The next-warmest winter on record was in 2004, and the third warmest winter was

in 1998, Lawrimore said.

 

The ten warmest years on record have occurred since 1995.

 

" We don't say this winter is evidence of the influence of greenhouse gases, "

Lawrimore said.

 

However, he noted that his center's work is part of the Intergovernmental Panel

on Climate change process, which released a report on global warming last month

that found climate change is occurring and that human activities quite likely

play a role in the change.

 

" So we know as a part of that, the conclusions have been reached and the warming

trend is due in part to rises in greenhouse gas emissions, " Lawrimore said. " By

looking at long-term trends and long-term changes, we are able to better

understand natural and anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change. "

 

The combined temperature for the December-February period was 1.3 degrees F

(0.72 degree C) above the 20th century mean, the agency said. Lawrimore did not

give an absolute temperature for the three-month period, and said the deviation

from the mean was what was important. He did not provide the 20th century mean

temperature.

 

Temperatures were above average for these months in Europe, Asia, western

Africa, southeastern Brazil and the northeast half of the United States, with

cooler-than-average conditions in parts of Saudi Arabia and the central United

States.

 

Global temperature on land surface during the northern hemisphere winter was

also the warmest on record, while the ocean-surface temperature tied for second

warmest after the winter of 1997-98.

 

Over the past century, global surface temperatures have increased by about 0.11

degree F per decade, but the rate of increase has been three times larger since

1976 -- around 0.32 degree F per decade, with some of the biggest temperature

rises in the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere.

 

Source: Reuters

 

 

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to

tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of war, corporations have been

enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money

power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the

prejudices of the people until all the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and

the republic is destroyed. I feel, at this moment, more anxiety for the safety

of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my

suspicions may prove groundless. " Lincoln in a letter to Col. William F. Elkins

on November 21, 1864