The NY Times today notices that this has been the coolest summer in decades. I wonder what that’s about ?
Not one 99-degree day in Central Park. Not a single day that the temperature even approached 90. For just the second time in 140 years of record keeping , the temperature will have failed to reach 90 in either June or July.
The daily average this month has been at or below normal every day but two. The temperature broke 80 on 16 days in New York — one more day than in Fairbanks, Alaska. Depending on Friday’s high, this will be the second or third coolest June and July recorded in New York. If August follows the same pattern — and the latest forecast through midmonth predicts that it will — this could be the coolest summer on record.
Of course, we have to dismiss any effect on you-know-what.
William D. Solecki, a geography professor at Hunter College of the City University of New York and co-chairman of a mayoral panel on climate change, warned that this summer’s unusually mild temperatures should not buoy global warming skeptics.
“Ask them to visit Seattle,” he said, where a record temperature of 103 was recorded on Wednesday.
Well, doesn’t this say something about the science of climate prediction ?
Scientists believe the shift is connected with the temperature of the oceans and their pattern of heating and cooling the atmosphere but, Mr. Gadomski said, “Our understanding of how a persistent pattern locks in isn’t very good.”
Oh, I thought they could predict the next 100 years !
I read this article and was suspicious of Solecki’s claim. I’m trying to pull the precise data from NOAA right now, but my preliminary findings show 6+ 90+ degree F days at Central Park over the past century, in the summer. That’s double the “few” that he claims.