World sizzles to

record for the year

Posted 3h 51m ago

By Oren Dorell, USA TODAY

The world is hotter than ever.

March, April, May and June set records, making

2010 the warmest year worldwide since record-

keeping began in 1880, the National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration says.

"It's part of an overall trend," says Jay Lawrimore,

climate analysis chief at NOAA's National Climatic

Data Center. "Global temperatures ... have been

rising for the last 100-plus years. Much of the

increase is due to increases in greenhouse gases."

There were exceptions: June was cooler than

average across Scandinavia, southeastern China,

and the northwestern USA, according to NOAA's

report.

If nothing changes, Lawrimore predicts:

•Flooding rains like those in Nashville in May will

be more common.

"The atmosphere is able to hold more water as it

warms, and greater water content leads to greater

downpours," he says.

PRICE HIKE: Hot weather boosts natural gas demand

MELTDOWN: Glacier National Park faces rising heat

• Heavy snow, like the record snows that crippled

Baltimore and Washington last winter, is likely to

increase because storms are moving north. Also, the

Great Lakes aren't freezing as early or as much. "As

cold outbreaks occur, cold air goes over the Great

Lakes, picks up moisture and dumps on the

Northeast," he says.

• Droughts are likely to be more severe and heat

waves more frequent.

• More arctic ice will disappear, speeding up

warming, as the Arctic Ocean warms "more than

would happen if the sea ice were in place," he says.

Arctic sea ice was at a record low in June.

Marc Morano, a global-warming skeptic who edits

the Climate Depot website, says the government "is

playing the climate fear card by hyping predictions

and cherry-picking data."

Joe D'Aleo, a meteorologist who co-founded The

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By Saul Young, Knoxville (Tenn.) News Sentinel, via AP

Kenadee Carpenter throws water on Trey Dougherty in Knoxville.

Weather Channel, disagrees, too. He says oceans are

entering a cooling cycle that will lower

temperatures.

He says too many of the weather stations NOAA uses

are in warmer urban areas.

"The only reliable data set right now is satellite,"

D'Aleo says.

He says NASA satellite data shows the average

temperature in June was 0.43 degrees higher than

normal. NOAA says it was 1.22 degrees higher.

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