Expect more weird weather, says NOAA

The?National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's annual report draws connections between the extreme weather events of 2011 and a warming climate.

By Douglas Main,?OurAmazingPlanet Staff Writer / July 10, 2012

Sophie, 3, from Connecticut, frolics with a water sprinkler set up at the National Mall near the Lincoln Memorial, rear, in Washington Saturday.

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While cooler than the year prior, 2011 was still one of the 15 hottest since 1880, a report released today (July 10) by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has found.

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The annual report, which examines a wide variety of climatic and weather data from around the world, saw a number of worrying trends continue from previous years and, along with a separate study, established connections between?extreme weather events in 2011?and both a warming climate and a persistent La Ni?a pattern.

The researchers who contributed to the studies said that 2011 wasn't a one-off year for weird weather, instead it is what we are likely to see more of in a warming world.

Arctic warming woes continue

The first report noted that the total area of the?Arctic Ocean covered by sea ice?in both the summer and winter was the second smallest on record; the area covered by ice has been below historical averages since 2001.

Concentrations of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane continued to rise, according to the report, which was produced by hundreds of scientists from around the world and published online today in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. [Video: Earth's Warming Since 1880]

Warming in the Arctic was especially pronounced, and the area is warming about twice as fast as areas closer to the equator, the report found. On the other side of the Earth, the South Pole station recorded its all-time highest temperature of 9.9 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 12 degrees Celsius) on Dec. 25, breaking the previous record by more than 2 degrees F (1 degree C). Levels of Arctic ozone, which block UV rays, dipped to their lowest since records began in 1979.

La Ni?a weather weirdness

The report also examined the year's extreme weather. Part of the weirdness arose from back-to-back cool spells in the Pacific Ocean, called La Ni?a episodes. La Ni?a, Spanish for "the girl," is a cyclical system of trade winds that cools the waters of the equatorial Pacific (El Ni?o is La Ni?a's warm-water counterpart).

La Ni?a helped drive heavy snowfall in the northern United States in early 2011, historic droughts in the southern United States in summer and an?above average Atlantic hurricane season. It also played a role in record flooding in South America and Australia, which killed thousands of people, as well as a drought in east Africa that affected millions, said Thomas Karl, director of NOAA's National Climatic Data Center, in a teleconference.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/FnrGszU6WgY/Expect-more-weird-weather-says-NOAA

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