“There’s no ambiguity about the data,” said Gavin Schmidt, a climatologist and the director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. “So really, it’s a question of attribution.”
Understanding what specific physical processes are behind these temperature records will help scientists improve their climate models and better predict temperatures in the future.
It does have to be. Because humans continue to make that decision, day in and day out, and ignore graphs like this. They ignore the blistering hot unprecedented Summer temps, the Arctic blasts, the hurricanes, the hailstorms, the increased insurance rates or even the unavailability of insurance altogether. They just keep driving their F150s to the office in rush hour traffic while heating hundreds of gallons of water in their pools that go unused 99.9% of the time.
I was reading the news the other day and some official at NOAA said that even tho this winter has been uncharacteristically warm the world over they expect that this summer will be cooler than usual and that La Nina is expected to kick in.
I don’t believe that placating bullshit for a second.
We just went 2 years El Nino, 2 yrs La Nina, and now we are right back into El Nino. Now that alone isn’t without precedent, it’s happened before. Usually it be 2 years E, 2ys L, then about 5-8 yrs of normality.
I suspect this is the new normal. But that being said, 2-2-1-(1-2) as far as I can tell IS unprecedented. The cycles almost always move in 2 yr cycles.
Actively look out for wet bulb days this summer. It’s the only metric a layperson really needs to concern themselves with. Wet bulb days are days where the temp breaks 90°F, 90% humidity. Water basically stops evaporating then and our sweat no longer cools us. Which means we literally start cooking. A professional American football player, laying outside under the shade of a tree, naked, with a fan on him, will die from heat exhaustion in 30min. The rest of us? If you’re AC is off in yr car, yr done. Texas’ power grid fails? Everyone’s done. The south will basically become inhospitable to life. In these conditions the military will only allow soldiers to work outside for 10-15 minutes, and then they are required to come inside and sit and not do anything for 45min until they cool down.
I think it’s going to finally start getting real out there. If not this year, then next. But it’s sure shaping up like it’ll be this year.