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Title: In Hot Water: World's Ocean Temps Warmest Recorded
Source:
Associated Press
URL Source: [None]
Published: Aug 20, 2009
Author: Associated Press
Post Date: 2009-08-20 15:50:30 by Brian S
Keywords: None
Views: 304
Comments: 15
(08-20) 11:00 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) -- The world's oceans this summer are the warmest on record. The National Climatic Data Center, the government agency that keeps weather records, says the average global ocean temperature in July was 62.6 degrees. That's the hottest since record-keeping began in 1880. The previous record was set in 1998. Meteorologists blame a combination of a natural El Nino weather pattern on top of worsening manmade global warming. The warmer water could add to the melting of sea ice and possibly strengthen some hurricanes. The result has meant lots of swimming at beaches in Maine with pleasant 72-degree water. Ocean temperatures reached 88 degrees as far north as Ocean City, Md., this week. The Gulf of Mexico, where warm water fuels hurricanes, has temperatures dancing around 90. Most of the water in the Northern Hemisphere has been considerably warmer than normal. The Mediterranean is about three degrees warmer than normal. Higher temperatures rule in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. It's most noticeable near the Arctic, where water temperatures are as much as 10 degrees above average. Breaking heat records in water is more ominous as a sign of global warming than breaking temperature marks on land. That's because water takes longer to heat up and doesn't cool off as easily, said climate scientist Andrew Weaver of the University of Victoria in British Columbia. "This is another yet really important indicator of the change that's occurring," Weaver said. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/08/20/national/a101659D19.DTL#ixzz0OkqRrny0
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 13.
#1. To: Brian S (#0)
Central and South Texas would welcome a hurricane or two. The drought of '09 sucks.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has presented somewhat different information on this summer's ocean temperatures than presented in Seth Borenstein's article. Oscillation Rules as the Pacific Cools, dated December 9, 2008 and in the NASA link at http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/jason-20081209_prt.htm begins with the following statement, "The latest image of sea-surface height measurements from the U.S./French Jason-1 oceanography satellite shows the Pacific Ocean remains locked in a strong, cool phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, a large, long-lived pattern of climate variability in the Pacific associated with a general cooling of Pacific waters." -and- Atlantic and East Pacific Ocean Hurricane Seasons Begin for 2009, dated June 1, 2009 and in the NASA link at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/archives/2009/new_season.html, includes the following statements, "NASA data currently indicate that sea surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic are below normal. These cooler than normal ocean temperatures could "starve" developing hurricanes of their driving force, which are waters warmer than 80 degrees Fahrenheit, thus suggesting a damping of hurricanes." Borenstein apparently chose not to review these NASA reports on the strong, cool phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and the cooler than normal temperatures in the tropical Atlantic.
#14. To: farmfriend (#13)
SCREW ALL THAT SCIENCEY STUFF! TAX ME BABY!
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#5. To: Lod (#1)
The 3300 Argo bathythermograph buoys deployed throughout the world's oceans since late in 2003 have shown a slight cooling of the oceans over the past five years, directly contrary to the official theory that any "global warming" not showing in the atmosphere would definitely show up in the first 400 fathoms of the world's oceans, where at least 80% of any surplus heat would be stored. Source: ARGO project, June 2009. (Reference)
#13. To: sourcery, *Agriculture-Environment* (#5)
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