World warm in August
Last month was the fourth-warmest on record, U.S. says.
World warm in August
Worldwide temperatures averaged 1.12 degrees Fahrenheit above 20th Century averages, good enough for No. 4 on the all-time warm list in records dating to 1880.
According to the National Climate Data Center August report, released this week, last month was ever-so slightly warmer than August 2011, but not quite as toasty as it was in 2010.
For the June through August period, the Northern Hemisphere's meteorological summer, global temperatures were the third-warmest.
Also of note is the report's finding that Arctic sea ice extent was 38.5 percent below normal, the lowest it has been in observations dating to 1979.
Conversely, Anarctic sea ice extent was above normal, and was the fourth-largest on record.
The reason sea-ice is expanding in the south is all of the ice sheets in western Antarctica are calving into the adjacent oceans, which is not a good sign. Warming oceans and rising sea levels will only accelerate the ice-sheet desintigration process in western Antarctica.— meteo30
Tony Wood has been writing about the atmosphere for The Inquirer for 26 years. E-mail Tony here. And read all his columns here.
