The recent toasty 2012 summer weather experienced in the U.S. has the climate doomsday pundits again claiming that extreme global warming (EGW) is to blame - however, NOAA's NCDC climate research agency has recently documented that EGW for the U.S. over the last decade was AWOL
(click images to enlarge)
Read here. The NCDC, a NOAA climate research unit, recently published a new dataset compiling U.S. weather records, including the maximum temperature record for each state. (Interestingly, the NCDC refers to these as 'climate extremes' - to the casual observer, it would be more accurate to refer to them as 'weather extremes.')
The adjacent chart shows when those maximum temperature records were initially set, by decade. In addition, the black dots represent the average CO2 level by decade. [Update 7/15/12: We were notified by 'C3' reader that chart had mistake, and we confirmed - the 1930's had 24 maximum temperature records, not 23; the 1990's actually had 3, not 4 as shown in the chart]
"It also is useful for putting the recent heat wave in perspective. Despite the 24/7 caterwauling, only two new state records—South Carolina and Georgia—are currently under investigation. And, looking carefully at Shein et al. dataset, there appears to be a remarkable lack of all-time records in recent years. This is particularly striking given the increasing urbanization of the U.S. and the consequent “non climatic” warming that creeps into previously pristine records. Everything else being equal—and with no warming from increased greenhouse gases—most statewide records should be in or near big cities. But they aren’t."
Per NOAA, 82% of all maximum records were initially set prior to 1960 and prior to the accelerated growth of human CO2 emissions and atmospheric CO2 levels.
As can be seen, through 2011, no maximum temperature records have been set since the 1990's. This is simply amazing since all the climate doomsday scientists and pundits have stated that recent global warming was "unprecedented" and that U.S. temperatures were rapidly increasing due to CO2 levels.
Based on the hysterical hyperbole from mainstream media sources, one would naturally have expected that many new maximum temperature records would have been set (not tied) since 1999.
Alas, it did not happen. Therefore, one can conclude that the U.S. was overdue for some record-setting temperatures and should be expected in the very near future.
As if on cue, the 2012 hot summer arrived in the U.S. and it's highly likely some new state maximum temperature records were set. Again, this should not be a surprise since a hot summer was overdue. And it most certainly was not a result of high CO2 levels.
Objectively, if high CO2 levels are primarily responsible for record maximum temperatures, than the past U.S. records prior to 1960 fully refute that speculative hypothesis.
This next chart lists each U.S. state and when its maximum temperature record was initially set, and includes those years when it was tied.
It's especially interesting to note that there was just one state, and a single year (2006), where a previous maximum temperature record was reached.
Additionally, during the Super El Nino of 1998, not a single maximum temperature record was broken or reached, which is incredibly mind-boggling when one considers the combination of an extreme ENSO phase with high CO2 levels.
Conclusions: Despite the incredible growth of CO2 levels since 1960, the vast majority of U.S. extreme global warming took place pre-1960. Based on NOAA historical observations and expectations, the U.S. was due for a summer of record-setting temperatures regardless of CO2 levels - the 2012 hot summer may indeed tie old records and set new ones. And finally, the 1890's to 1930's were decades of extreme heat in the U.S., with the majority of state maximum temperature records being set during that period - climate doomsday scientists have no believable theory to explain such extreme global warming with such low CO2 levels.
Modern, regional, historical and fabricating-fake temperature charts.
