Global Temperature Trend Update: October 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 October, 2012.

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

October temperatures (preliminary)

Global composite temp.: +0.33 C (about 0.59 degrees Fahrenheit) above 30-year average for October.

Northern Hemisphere: +0.30 C (about 0.54 degrees Fahrenheit) above 30-year average for October.

Southern Hemisphere: +0.36 C (about 0.65 degrees Fahrenheit) above 30-year average for October.

Tropics: +0.11 C (about 0.20 degrees Fahrenheit) above 30-year average for October.

Notes on data released Nov. 6, 2012:

The pause in the anticipated El Niño Pacific Ocean warming event — seen in the sea surface temperatures in the Pacific during the past two months — is now appearing in the tropical upper air, 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. The absent El Niño shows up in the relative temperatures of the world's parts: While October 2012 was the second warmest October in the satellite record for the Southern Hemisphere and fourth warmest for the north, the tropics were scarcely warmer than normal for the month — only the 13th "warmest" October in the 34-year satellite record.

Compared to seasonal norms, the coldest area on the globe in October was south central Saskatchewan to the east of Saskatoon, which was 2.28 C (about 4.1 Fahrenheit) cooler than normal for the month. The warmest area was in the central Bering Sea, where temperatures averaged 3.95 C (about 7.1 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than seasonal norms for October.

Go here to see the monthly satellite data from 1978 to the present.

Comments

[Bee Tagger]

Well, election day may have been awful, but at least there's a global temperature trend update today

[Fist of Etiquette]

Does this trend analysis indicate how much the rise of the oceans has slowed since yesterday?

[Pound. Head. On. Desk.]

Or in the last 4 years?

[Pudgeboy]

It can be calculated using the same methodology that's applied to the 'jobs saved' analysis... very complicated, but always gives you the answer you want.

[Gene]

Global Warming, bring it on then I will overwinter more than Musa Basjoo, Cavendish just won't fill out if you must put it in a pot to bring indoors just to survive this cancer we call winter.

[Hyperion]

Don't worry, Ron, the great Messiah gets four more years to pour tax dollars down the rat hole of green job cronyism. So we will be saved from this warming. Maybe he will even appoint ManBearPig to head up some giant new bureuacracy that will quickly and efficiently deal with this in typical government fashion.

[MP]

Ron Bailey needs to read Bloomberg Businessweek. Any discussion of Global Warming is STUPID. Remember kiddies, weather = climate when it serves your agenda. So say we all.

[R C Dean]

Any bets on whether the carbon tax gets proposed as a deficit reduction measure?

[Almanian's Evil Twin]

Help me again with how we define "global" temps? I understand "infinity different locations' individual temps", but not "global temps".

Also, remind me what the "ideal" temp is? Also - what about humidity? Cause I hear a lot of people say, "It's not the heat so much as it is the humidity." Most of them are old, so I think that means they're wise, if not Latina.

Appreciate your counsel as always.

[Sam Grove]

Seems to me that we need a few more decades of data gathering to make any sense of the current trend.

[Jersey Patriot]

It is interesting to note that the sine wave is no longer on the graph. What happened to the 30-year cycle? LOL