How has your weather been lately?  In Minnesota we are going through constant storms and downpours. It’s been incredibly hot and feels tropical outside nearly all the time.  This is also turning out to be a record-breaking year of tornadoes. We have had 3 days of tornado warnings already this week.

Facilities on the Iowa State Univ. campus in Ames, Iowa, are flooded on August 12.

What do Pakistan, China, and Ames, Iowa have in common? They are all suffering from torrential rains leading to massive flooding.  Right now, 2/3rds of Pakistan is under water. Of any summer on record, this one is the wettest and hottest ever seen on much of the planet.  This is what climate change looks like.

James Hansen, NASA scientist, climate change scientist and author, and other scientists, released their latest findings on the climate today.  According to Hansen, the graphic below shows that “through the first seven months 2010 is warmer than prior warm years. The difference of +0.08°C compared with 2005, the prior warmest year, is large enough that 2010 is likely, but not certain, to be the warmest year in the GISS record.”

The article from Hansen introducing the findings, which you can download at the bottom after the break.

What Global Warming Looks Like

The July 2010 global map of surface temperature anomalies (Figure 1), relative to the average July in the 1951-1980 period of climatology, provides a useful picture of current climate. It was more than 5°C (about 10°F) warmer than climatology in the eastern European region including Moscow. There was an area in eastern Asia that was similarly unusually hot. The eastern part of the United States was unusually warm, although not to the degree of the hot spots in Eurasia.

There were also substantial areas cooler than climatology, including a region in central Asia and the southern part of South America. The emerging La Nina is now moderately strong, as evidenced by the region cooler than climatology along the equator in the eastern and central Pacific Ocean.

The 12-month running mean of global temperature (Figure 2) achieved a record high level during the past few months. Because the current La Nina will continue at least several months, and likely strengthen somewhat, the 12-month running mean temperature is expected to decline during the second half of 2010.

Will calendar year 2010 be the warmest in the period of instrumental data? Figure 3 shows that through the first seven months 2010 is warmer than prior warm years. The difference of +0.08°C compared with 2005, the prior warmest year, is large enough that 2010 is likely, but not certain, to be the warmest year in the GISS record. However, because of the cooling effect of La Nina in the remainder of the year, there is a strong possibility that the 2005 and 2010 global temperatures will be sufficiently close that they will be practically [...]