After the unusually lengthy Solar minimum is over, 2010 retook the pre-2008 tendency of greater and faster warming becoming the hottest year ever, though tied with 2005 and 1998 because of uncertainty margins.
And the new solar 11-year cycle has just begun, I'd expect by 2015-16 (solar maximum) to be much hotter because, in general, solar sunspots correlate with temperature on Earth, everything else equal, as they increase solar radiance. So it was totally logical to have a short break in increasing temperatures and arctic loss of ice these last two years, as we went through one of the strongest solar minimums ever, with almost no documented sunspots in two years.
But now we are "back to normal" in the Sun and that means that the escalation of Earthly temperatures should continue, as we have done nothing to reduce the hothouse effect.
Source for the global temperature data: BBC. The rest is my elaboration.
See also at Leherensuge (my old blog):
- Ice sheet fragmenting near the North Pole
- Younger Dryas began in just few months
- Global warming de-stabilizing North Atlantic climate
- Blame the rich for global warming
- Even in a cool year (2008) arctic ice is down
- Ice melting sooner than ever in spite of solar low
- Antarctica heating up faster than predicted
Interestingly, according to the Catalan Meteorologic Service (Meteocat), 2010 was one of the coldest years in the past two decades: http://www20.gencat.cat/docs/meteocat/Continguts/Climatologia/Butlletins%20i%20resums%20climatics/Butlletins%20anuals/2010/Nota_Butlletí_Anual_2010.pdf (in Catalan)
ReplyDeleteLocal variation.
ReplyDeleteCertainly in both Europe and North America there has been some notable cold spells but it is global data what really matters.