After this process was used by the researchers to determine new normal conditions for global average temperatures, it was used again to examine record
hot seasonal temperatures at a regional level.
Phoenix has an arid climate and some of
the hottest seasonal temperatures in the U.S.. Its residents see an average of 325 sunny days and less than eight inches of rain each year.
«The U.S. temperatures in the summer of 2012 are an example of a new trend of outlying seasonal extremes that are warmer than
the hottest seasonal temperatures of the mid-20th century,» GISS director James E. Hansen said.
«The U.S. temperatures in the summer of 2012 are an example of a new trend of outlying seasonal extremes that are warmer than
the hottest seasonal temperatures of the mid-20th century,» NASA scientist James E. Hansen, director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said in a statement.
Phoenix has an arid climate and some of
the hottest seasonal temperatures in the U.S.. Its residents see an average of 325 sunny days and less than eight inches of rain each year.
Not exact matches
These seasons will be «
hotter» (stronger anomaly) still, relatively speaking — and are very likely to break all
seasonal temperature records for Sep - Nov and Dec - Feb, globally.
The
seasonal variation in the earth's global average sea surface
temperature is only about 0.5 degrees Kelvin, being
hotter in April and colder in October (see e.g. http://discover.itsc.uah.edu/amsutemps/execute.csh?amsutemps).
Fig. 5 reveals that the occurrence of «
hot» summers (
seasonal mean
temperature anomaly exceeding +0.43 σ) has reached the level of 67 % required to make four sides of the dice red in both the Northern Hemisphere (Fig. 5, Top) and Southern Hemisphere (Fig. 5, Bottom).
A few connections between a warmer world and Hurricane Sandy can certainly be made, however: rising sea levels are likely to worsen storm surges; warmer waters bring more rain to increase flooding; and
hotter temperatures may allow the hurricane to push both
seasonal and geographic boundaries.