Global Climate In 2008 May Be Coolest Since 2000
Mathew Carr
3 Jan 2008
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=aBBw.Bw5TOpg&refer=australia
Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Average global temperatures will be lower in 2008
than in any year since 2000 because of cooling waters in the Pacific
Ocean, according to an estimate from the Met Office, the U.K. weather
forecaster.
Still, temperatures will be 0.37 degree Celsius above the 14-degree
(57.2-degree Fahrenheit) average from 1961 to 1990, and this year will
probably be one of the 10 hottest on record, according to a statement on
the Met Office Web site.
2007 was one of the 10 warmest years ever, based on global recorded
temperatures, the Met Office said yesterday. 1998 is currently the
warmest year to date, when global temperatures were 0.52 degrees above
the 14-degree average.
``For 2008, the development of a strong La Nina in the tropical Pacific
Ocean will limit the warming trend of the global climate,'' the Met
Office said in today's statement. ``During La Nina, cold waters upwell
to cool large areas of the ocean and land surface temperatures.''
At least half of the years after 2009 are forecast to be warmer than
1998, the Met Office said in August.
``The fact that 2008 is forecast to be cooler than any of the last seven
years, and that 2007 did not break the record warmth set on 1998, does
not mean that global warming has gone away,'' Phil Jones, director of
the Met Office's Climatic Research Unit at the University of East
Anglia, said today in the statement.
To contact the re****ter on this story: Mathew Carr in London at
m.carr@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Updated: January 3, 2008 13:08 EST
--
Warmest Regards
Bonzo
"The question scientists should now be asking is not how much it will
warm over the next 50 to 100 years, but why has it warmed so little
during the major carbon dioxide buildup?" Patrick J. Michaels,
Environmental Scientist , University of Virginia
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