Global Temperature Trend Update: July 2012

Every month University of Alabama in Huntsville climatologists John Christy and Roy Spencer report the latest global temperature trends from satellite data. Below are the newest data updated through July, 2012.

Global climate trend since Nov. 16, 1978: +0.14 C per decade

July temperatures (preliminary)

Global composite temp.: +0.28 C (about 0.50 degrees Fahrenheit) above 30-year average for July.

Northern Hemisphere: +0.44 C (about 0.79 degrees Fahrenheit) above 30-year average for July.

Southern Hemisphere: +0.11 C (about 0.20 degrees Fahrenheit) above 30-year average for July.

Tropics: +0.33 C (about 0.59 degrees Fahrenheit) above 30-year average for July.

Notes on data released Aug. 6, 2012:

Compared to global seasonal norms, July 2012 was the coolest July since 2008, according to Dr. John Christy, a professor of atmospheric science and director of the Earth System Science Center at The University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Compared to seasonal norms, the coldest spot on the globe in July was the South Pole, where winter temperatures averaged 4.5 C (8.1 degrees F) colder than normal. If it isn't usually the coldest place on Earth in July, seeing temperatures during the deepest part of the Antarctic winter that much colder than normal might move the South Pole into that spot. By comparison, the "warmest" place on Earth in July was in northeastern Alberta, Canada. Temperatures there averaged 3.43 C (about 6.2 degrees F) warmer than normal for the month.

Go here to see the processed satellite temperatue data.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Compared to global seasonal norms, July 2012 was the coolest July since 2008...

Now they're just being contrary for the sake of being contrary. I sweated my arse off in July.

[Pro Libertate]

It's been like Road Warrior hot down here.

[Fist of Etiquette]

No one forced you to live in America's wang.

[Pro Libertate]

I love Florida. It's just hot right now. It's like our winter.

[Episiarch]

Look, man, I actually had to turn on the AC in my car this weekend. God, you're such a whiner.

[Pro Libertate]

You know what pissed me off? The six weeks I spent in Seattle when my corporate apartment didn't have A/C. In the United States in the 21st century. Fucking primitives. It was in the high 80s for a good two weeks.

[John]

They are animals up there Pro. Any place without AC might as well be the Namib.

[Episiarch]

No one has AC, ProL. Because you'd maybe need it a few days a year. And besides, on days like that, I am out at the pool all day. What would I need AC for?

[Pro Libertate]

Primitive. It's like the fucking bush up there. It's no surprise Gates had to build a $40 million domed residence.

[wareagle]

the coast, Pro; always 5-10 cooler than inland.

[Brett L]

Its been a bit cooler than normal due to rain every day. (Cooler = 90-92 instead of 94-46.) And our drought is over.

[Pro Libertate]

It was nice this morning--warm, but not very humid. Because of the pre-storm.

[Brett L]

Its weird to live in a place where the humidity declines in the face of oncoming rain.

[Pro Libertate]

Yeah, crazy, huh?

Most Septembers, the temperature stays roughly the same (maybe cooler at night), but we usually start seeing a drop in the humidity. So nice.

[joshua corning]

The only place it does not do that is the desert....

So yeah I guess it could be weird not living in a desert.

[Isaac Bartram]

The last couple of months have been hot in Florida but they have been hotter further north at times.

I recall talking to my daughter one day last month when the daytime high at her place in North Bay, Ontario was actually higher than it was in Orlando.

[Pro Libertate]

I just about melted in Orlando a couple of weekends ago. The interior of the state is just godawful at times. We, at least, usually have the Gulf breeze.

[John]

I have often wondered what kind of a nut lives in Orlando. Tampa or any of the places on the ocean I could see. But Orlando must just be hell on earth.

[Pro Libertate]

This is my thinking. And, to be fair, the thinking of most people who live in the Bay Area and, for that matter, in Orlando.

[Isaac Bartram]

It's not as bad as some places. Even this far inland there's still some relief from the maritime effect.

But it's true that the the only thing that ever made Florida liveable was the advent of air conditioning.

[John]

Can you imagine New Orleans before clean water, sanitation and AC? You had to have had a death wish to go there.

[Pro Libertate]

I remain amazed every time I go to some historical place here, like St. Augustine, and hear about people wearing full outfits of wool, all with no A/C. I can't even imagine how awful that was. With bugs galore on top of that.

[John]

I have spent two summers in the middle east, where it really does get to 130. Basically you can acclimatize to anything. You don't think you can. But you do.

[Jersey Patriot]

The malaria chills would cool you down.

[Almanian's Evil Twin]

North Bay! My pipe band won the big contest there a couple years in a row back in the day (early/mid-2000s). Big money....one year it was the biggest prize money for any pipe band in the world.

Also, LOVELY country. Just wonderful. Like Northern Michigan, but more....Canadian.

I remember it was snowing (in late May) the third year we played there 🙂

[JW]

I was in Tucson a few years ago and it was hotter in DC than there.

Highs in the 80's most of the week, monsoon season with all the cacti blooming. Prickly pear margaritas, hikes in the desert, 3 swimming pools...heaven. DC was having a heat wave in the 100's.

I even saw a road runner my first day there.

[Pro Libertate]

I fucking hate roadrunners. Thank you, Warner Brothers!

[SugarFree]

You're just saying that because you are a much-abused cartoon coyote.

[Pro Libertate]

No, but I am pro-coyote. Really, does anyone prefer the Road Runner? I hate that fucking bird.

[John]

Who hasn't been a victim of a bad mail order product?

[Pro Libertate]

Excellent.

[Anacreon]

"beep beep yuras"

(coyote says while grasping road runner by throat)

wasn't that the kids' iron-on patch from awhile back?

[Mickey Rat]

Poor little roadrunner never bothered anyone...

[Episiarch]

I was in Tucson visiting my sister a few years ago, in late October. It was over 90 and brutally hot in the sun. We went desert hiking and it was pretty nasty. But no humidity.

It's the humidity which is the worst.

[John]

The big thing with it being dry is that it cools off and gets beautiful the moment the sun sets.

[kinnath]

Record setting temperatures and the worst drought in my lifetime here in Iowa.

But globally, it was cooler than normal.

Apparently chaotic systems can produce localized extremes that don't reflect the global average. Who knew?

[Brett L]

Hopefully everyone who has had a process or signals control class.

[kinnath]

😉

[A Serious Man]

Oddly, it hasn't been very hot at all in Southern California, low 80s or less for the past month. It's only started to warm up this weekend.

[Obese American]

Went fishing off Redondo yesterday, didn't even see the sun until 2 p.m.

I haven't even installed my window A/C this year (torrance).

[robc]

By far the hottest July in the Ohio Valley that I can remember.

[robc]

Based on the correlation between global warming and my weather, I say bring it on. We are cool when the rest of the world is running hot.

[SugarFree]

Agreed. It's been just miserable here. Although, I think I preferred the 100 degree days with low humidity to the shit we have now. It's like being smothered.

[robc]

Its a bit closer to normal for this time of year.

I didnt know what to do with 104F and no humidity. It confused me.

[SugarFree]

Lexington is usually much better on the humidity front. This is like I'm back in that damn swamp, Henderson.

[kinnath]

About a week and a half ago we hit 105 in Iowa with dew points well up in the 60s or even low 70s. That was pretty ugly.

I was in Phoenix when they set the record at 122. And I've been to Singapore when the temp and the dew point were both in the 90s. So I won't say the recent weather in Iowa has been the worse that I've experienced, but it made its way into the top 10 for sure.

[Pro Libertate]

The worst heat I've endured was in Malaysia, with humidity and temperature both in the high 90s. Not to mention that I was in business casual most of the time to avoid offense.

[kinnath]

I have a scar on my arm that I got my first week in Phoenix (moved there in August of all times). I rolled down the window and put my arm on the door just like I always did back home. Only made that mistake once.

115 to 120 can be brutal, but at least you can go sit in the shade and drink something cold.

The topics on the other hand with double 90s, there just no way not to be drenched in sweat and miserable (other than to be in the pool).

[Pip]

Hottest July ever in Minnesota.

[Almanian's Evil Twin]

yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn

I admire your stick-to-it-iveness, Ronald, for keeping us updated. Thanks. But I just don't care about this subject any more. It's been beaten to death, and the True Believers have been shown to be lying sacks of shit with an agenda.

The semp's climate's falling rising changing whatever I do.

The hubris of Man, that he can change the weather itself.

[wareagle]

there you go again, conflating weather with climate.

/AGW tub thumper

[T o n y]

What's it called when you assume you know better than scientists whether man can or cannot affect weather?

[Pip]

"What's it called when you assume you know better than scientists whether man can or cannot affect weather?"

Being T o n y?

[wef]

please that's servile tony to you

[tarran]

Being a proponent of human caused runaway global warming?

[Old Mexican]

Re: Tony,

What's it called when you assume you know better than scientists whether man can or cannot affect weather?

Not being bought and paid for?

[joshua corning]

What's it called when you assume you know better than scientists whether man can or cannot affect weather?

I thought this article was about global climate...not weather.

[NoVAHockey]

so we are not screwed? cause this guy had an op-ed that said we're are

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html

[Auric Demonocles]

1) The idea that we're screwed is the part of AGW that convinces me they are horribly wrong.

2)

Our analysis shows that it is no longer enough to say that global warming will increase the likelihood of extreme weather and to repeat the caveat that no individual weather event can be directly linked to climate change. To the contrary, our analysis shows that, for the extreme hot weather of the recent past, there is virtually no explanation other than climate change.

Weather isn't climate except when it is!

[Episiarch]

I almost feel bad for the schmucks who keep beating this dead horse. They're still high on how climate change was going to allow them to control shit, and they just cannot believe that it's all crumbled from underneath them. If they just yell louder, they can get it back! Really!

Almost feel bad. Because watching them flail is just too much fun.

[tarran]

I don't feel bad for them.

Those scum-bags have blood on their hands - statistically speaking.

[CE]

Maybe we should go back in the history books and find out how the government reversed the global warming that caused the 1936 heat wave, and the one back in 1000.

[NoVAHockey]

I though that was part of the New Deal. FDR saved us all.

[R C Dean]

for the extreme hot weather of the recent past, there is virtually no explanation other than climate change.

Isn't it pretty tautological to equate "extreme hot weather" with "climate change"?

Of course, it begs the question of whether that climate change is caused by human activity, but he's probably hoping nobody notices that.

[Brett L]

Oh you mean the guy who conducted a media campaign in 2004 while employed at that same job stating that the Bush Administration was silencing him for holding AGW views? The guy who features heavily in Al Gore's book? The guy who who calls Christie et. al. denialists? Totally credible. Nothing in it for him but the science.

[Almanian's Evil Twin]

I blame Bush

[Bee Tagger]

It's fitting that the new design would wilt when faced with the heat of a temperature trend update.

[Lord Humungus]

/oh, it's this thread again

[Pro Libertate]

No, it's that thread! [Plays theme music from That Girl.]

[Almanian's Evil Twin]

That Girl

*stares at ProL with the knowing look of one who grew up around the same time*

[Auric Demonocles]

I suspected I didn't get the reference because there were airplanes when I was born!

[Pro Libertate]

What were there, five syndicated shows back then?

[Fist of Etiquette]

HA! That Girl was before my time. You old farts.

[Pro Libertate]

I didn't see it first run, dude.

[Pip]

I did. We all thought she was hawt and Donald was the ideal man (in training).

[Anacreon]

Did you know that the reason she flew a kite in the opening was to give a shout-out to her sorority sisters?

I've got a lot of That Girl and Marlo trivia.

[Auric Demonocles]

But it's got a shiny new layout! And with 400% more whitespace!

[Lord Humungus]

now with flavor!

[CE]

still within the normal year-to-year variation, still random fluctuations

[SugarFree]

Hey, remember how the warm winter was the result of Polar Vortex Collapse? Did the vortex reform right in time for summer? Convenient that.

[Old Mexican]

By comparison, the "warmest" place on Earth in July was in northeastern Alberta, Canada. Temperatures there averaged 3.43 C (about 6.2 degrees F) warmer than normal for the month.

"How hot was it?!?"
"It was so hot, the polar bears were bathing under the sun European Style!"

[Brett L]

Exposing their fat to the world while the ones you want to see naked cover up?

[T o n y]

Follow this link:

http://www.skepticalscience.com/argument.php

Find your specious argument in the list, and then follow the link to an explanation of why you're wrong. I bet 100% of the ignorant bullshit skeptics here say is represented in that list.

[Cytotoxic]

Hmmm no.

[T o n y]

Really? The one about how Antarctica is gaining ice popped up here not too long ago. Definitely heard about how Pluto is warming (when it hasn't even completed a single orbit since its discovery!). And those are but a couple of the more obscure skeptical arguments. Go on, take a look, I bet you'll find your favorite ones.

[joshua corning]

Does it address why it was as warm or warmer 1000 years ago as it is today?

Or does it deny the medieval warm period even existed?

[Old Mexican]

Re: Joshua Corning,

Or does it deny the medieval warm period even existed?

Yes, they DO deny it. They say that it wasn't as warm as it is today, as if Leif Erikson's colony in Greendland never existed.

[T o n y]

http://www.skepticalscience.co.....period.htm

[Old Mexican]

Re: Tony,

Find your specious argument in the list, and then follow the link to an explanation of why you're wrong.

Yes, they have an ad hoc explanation for everything. Kind of like asking why I can't see the purple dragon they say exists.

Pointing out that there were other periods of even higher warming gets you a "I don't care, man did it!" from them. Ho-hum, I say.

[T o n y]

The evidence says current warming is being caused by humans. Why do you resist such a finding so much? There's no reason to, not based on the level of trust you place in science for all other matters. That's what science says. If you have another explanation, and it isn't satisfactorily destroyed by something from that list, then publish a paper and stun the world.

[Fluffy]

The benefits of a price on carbon outweigh the costs several times over.

Anyone who attempts to make such a statement is a fantasist on par with the people who advocate public subsidies for sports stadiums by claiming a "multiplier effect". I am assuming the rest of their work is of a similar quality.

They naturally talk in the vaguest of generalities with regard to the economic impact of global warming policy. Their big bogeyman for economic costs is sea level rise, but sea level rise is conveniently predicted to be a real problem after 2100. So they're essentially asking for massive economic costs now and massive power for econazis now to prevent an environmental problem 100 years from now. Anyone who would considering making such a deal has to ask themselves: How good would people in 1912 have been at projecting the scientific and economic developments of the next 100 years? How sound a trade-off would have been made then? Anyone who thinks they can make 100 year projections and plan accordingly is also a fantasist.

[Auric Demonocles]

But do you realize how hard it is to walk away from the ocean?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Why don't all of you cut open and count the rings on your anecdotal musings about weather and then shoot me that data. Otherwise it's been the coldest July since Superman reversed the poles.

[Archduke PantsFan]

We had the hottest July since 1936.

[Jersey Patriot]

Ron, the July 2012 data isn't on the chart you linked here. Where do you get the July data?

[CharlesWT]

The June data wasn't on that chart last month.