Thursday, November 4, 2010

All-Time November Temperature Record Broken in San Diego

Daily temperature records for November 4 were tied or broken at many locations in southern California on Thursday. It was the first time ever that 100° has been recorded in November at San Diego. Laguna Beach broke an 81-year record high minimum temperature by 16°.

From the National Weather Service:
STATION NAME      NEW RECORD     OLD RECORD AND YEAR
---------------------------------------------------
LOS ANGELES AP 96 TIES 96 SET IN 1976
LA DOWNTOWN 96 TIES 96 SET IN 1976
LONG BEACH 96 95 SET IN 1976
SAN GABRIEL 98 TIES 98 SET IN 1976
SANTA MONICA PIER 96 88 SET IN 1976
UCLA 97 TIES 97 SET IN 1976
CAMARILLO 96 95 SET IN 1949
SANTA MARIA AP 93 92 SET IN 1949

LOCATION NEW RECORD OLD RECORD PERIOD OF RECORD

ALPINE 92 90 IN 1976 SINCE 1951
LAGUNA BEACH 96 TIED 96 IN 1976 SINCE 1928
NEWPORT BEACH 92 85 IN 1976 SINCE 1929
SAN DIEGO (LINDBERGH) 100 97 IN 1976 SINCE 1875
VISTA 96 95 IN 1976 SINCE 1962

...HIGHEST MINIMUM TEMPERATURE RECORDS BROKEN OR TIED ON NOVEMBER 4...

LOCATION NEW RECORD OLD RECORD PERIOD OF RECORD

ALPINE 64 60 IN 1997 SINCE 1951
LAGUNA BEACH 78 62 IN 1929 SINCE 1928
SAN DIEGO (LINDBERGH) 67 63 IN 2001 SINCE 1875
VISTA 62 60 IN 2001 SINCE 1962

All-Time Record November Heat Follows Record Rain in Northwest;
Century+ Temperature Records Broken

Following record-setting daily rainfall on Monday, Seattle tied its all-time record high November temperature on Wednesday. The precipitation of 1.56" broke the daily record for November 1 of 1.06" set in 1984. This was only the 5th time in over a century of records that the temperature reached 70° or above at Seattle in November.

Records over a century old were broken across northwestern Oregon. From the National Weather Service:
LISTED ARE RECORD MAXIMUM TEMPERATURES SET FOR NOVEMBER 3RD:

MAXIMUM PREVIOUS RECORDS KEPT
LOCATION TEMPERATURE RECORD SINCE
-------------------------------------------------------
ASTORIA 73 68 IN 1970 1890
SALEM 74 71 IN 1975 1892
MCMINNVILLE 73 71 IN 1975 1894
VANCOUVER 72 70 IN 1975
For the Seattle temperature record, the National Weather Service reports:
 THE HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 74 DEGREES ON WEDNESDAY TIED FOR THE WARMEST 
ALL TIME NOVEMBER DAY ON RECORD IN SEATTLE. THE OTHER NOVEMBER 74
DEGREE DAY WAS ON NOVEMBER 4TH 1949. WEDNESDAY WAS ONLY THE FIFTH
DAY ...INCLUDING RECORDS AT THE FEDERAL BUILDING WHICH GO BACK TO
1891...WHERE THE HIGH REACHED INTO THE 70S IN NOVEMBER. THE
FOLLOWING IS A SUMMARY OF 70 DEGREE DAYS IN NOVEMBER IN SEATTLE.

1. 74 DEGREES 11/3/2010
2. 74 DEGREES 11/4/1949
3. 72 DEGREES 11/2/1970 FEDERAL BUILDING HIGH WAS 72
4. 71 DEGREES 11/4/1980
5. 70 DEGREES 11/3/1970 FEDERAL BUILDING HIGH WAS 73

WHEN THE FEDERAL BUILDING WAS THE OFFICIAL WEATHER RECORD SITE FOR
SEATTLE...1891 TO 1944...THERE WAS NEVER A DAY IN NOVEMBER WITH A
HIGH IN THE 70S.

THIS PAST SUMMER...JUNE 21ST TO SEPTEMBER 21ST...THE HIGH
TEMPERATURE AT SEATTLE-TACOMA AIRPORT WAS LESS THAN 74 DEGREES ON 60
OUT OF THE 93 DAYS...SO ALMOST TWO THIRDS OF THE DAYS THIS SUMMER
WERE NOT AS WARM AS WEDNESDAY.

OUT OF THE FOUR YEARS WHERE A 70 DEGREE DAY HAS OCCURRED IN SEATTLE
IN NOVEMBER THREE OF THE YEARS...2010...1970 AND 1949 ARE LA NINA
YEARS. 1980 WAS A NEUTRAL YEAR.
Cliff Mass has some background in his weather blog.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Political Climate: Elections Have Consequences; Cap and Trade, RIP

See here for other Political Science posts.

November 5 Update: Think Progress today reviews the four fossils competing to run the House Energy Committee: Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), Rep. Joe "BP" Barton (R-TX), and Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL).

November 4 Update: Only half of the Republican freshmen in Congress are overt science deniers. Climate Progress has the scorecard.

ThingsBreak has the rundown on Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX), who has "staked his claim to the chairmanship of the House Science and Technology Committee."

Original post:
One of the consequences of the election of 2010 is that the average scientific IQ of Congress will be lower by several points. Courtesy of the Union of Concerned Scientists, here are some of the anti-scientific views coming soon to a Congress near you:
"With the possible exception of Tiger Woods, nothing has had a worse year than global warming. We have discovered that a good portion of the science used to justify "climate change" was a hoax perpetrated by leftist ideologues with an agenda."
—Todd Young, new congressperson from Indiana

"I absolutely do not believe that the science of man-caused climate change is proven. Not by any stretch of the imagination. I think it’s far more likely that it’s just sunspot activity or something just in the geologic eons of time where we have changes in the climate." —Ron Johnson, new senator from Wisconsin

"I think we ought to take a look at whatever the group is that measures all this, the IPCC, they don't even believe the crap." —Steve Pearce, new congressperson from New Mexico

"It's a bigger issue, we need to watch 'em. Not only because it may or may not be true, but they're making up their facts to fit their conclusions. They've already caught 'em doing this." —Rand Paul, new senator from Kentucky

"There isn't any real science to say we are altering the climate path of the earth." —Roy Blunt, new senator from Missouri
And, of course, there's that classic from the Speaker-to-be of the House: "The idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment is almost comical."

On the other hand, California defeated Proposition 23.

Some other commentary:

GOP plans attacks on the EPA and climate scientists (h/t ThingsBreak)

The Gold Guy finds some silver linings.

Monday, November 1, 2010

New Record Highs Continue Outpacing Lows By Wide Margin: Nearly 5:1 in October

For related record temperature posts, see:
Continuing the pattern established in the spring, extending through the summer and into September, new record high temperatures are outpacing record low temperatures in the U.S. for the 8th consecutive month. Preliminary data from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) for October show over 1500 new record highs, vs. slightly more than 300 lows, giving a ratio of 4.75 to 1. For the year to date, new highs are exceeding new lows by a ratio of 2.8 to 1.

Reversing the trend in September, new record warm minimum temperatures also exceeded record high maximums as they have in nearly every month so far in 2010. The excess of high minimum records was particularly strong in the summer, when as many as 3761 were reported in August alone.

With the exception of a cold spell from October 5th through 7th, record highs equaled or exceeded record lows every day of the month. The large monthly excess of heat records vs. cold records was driven by two very warm spells, one in each half of the month. The first one, around Columbus Day, peaked on the 11th, when 194 record highs were set, vs. only 1 record low. In a 3-day period, 530 heat records were set, over 50% more than the cold records for the entire month.

In connection with the Minnesota Maxi-cyclone late in the month, many more records were set in the eastern half of the country. There were 325 individual record high temperatures from the 26th through the 28th, more than the total lows for the whole month. During the same 3 days, there were only 18 record lows.

Images (click to enlarge):
- Total number of daily high temperature, low temperature, and high minimum temperature records set in the U.S. for spring 2010 (March-April-May) and monthly from June through October 2010, data from NOAA National Climatic Data Center, background image © Kevin Ambrose (www.weatherbook.com). Includes historical daily observations archived in NCDC's Cooperative Summary of the Day data set and preliminary reports from Cooperative Observers and First Order National Weather Service stations. All stations have a Period of Record of at least 30 years.
- Daily numbers of high and low temperature records set in the U.S. for October 2010, data source as above

Seasonal Outlook

Latest seasonal forecast: Click here.


Latest 3-month temperature outlook from Climate Prediction Center/NWS/NOAA.