If you live in the U.S., you have been feeling cold lately. The area south of Buffalo, N.Y., got five feet of snow last week, and the Weather Channel says that parts of the Midwest and Great Lakes region may experience "one of the longest sub-freezing spells on record for the month of November."
We've been through this drill before--last winter. And it's important to keep in mind that just because it is very cold in the U.S. doesn't mean that you should question the overall warming trend for the planet. Weather shifts heat and cold around. We also know our own local experiences inherently bias us, since we only live the weather in one place. But the total global picture remains one of warming.
Indeed, much evidence suggests that we may be experiencing this stark cold while en route to the warmest year in recorded history. According to data from the Japan Meteorological Agency, October 2014 on a global level was the hottest October on record.
And before October, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had shown that there was a very good chance of 2014 setting an overall temperature record.
According to John Abraham, a climate scientist at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, November on a global level is warmer than average, but not likely to be another record-breaker like September and October. But, Abraham adds, "it's hard for me to imagine that we will not break the annual record."
"The extraordinary thing is that this is not an El Niño year, despite a lot of discussion about El Niño emerging," adds Gavin Schmidt, director of the NASA-Goddard Institute for Space Studies, which tracks global temperatures. "And so you're looking at a situation where you've got a neutral year and you're still close to breaking records, and that's telling you something about the whole shift in the baseline of temperatures."
Editorial on 11/23/2014