Oh, Thank God! 2017 Was Only The Third-Warmest On Record For The United States

[hatrack]

So, as you can clearly see, the climate is actually cooling!



2017 finished as the third-hottest year in the U.S. since NOAA records began in 1895, with an average temperature 2.56°F above the 20th century mean.

Additional stats:

The four hottest years on record have come in the decade of the 2010s

Of the 10 hottest years on record, only two came before 1998 (1934, 1990)

The hottest locations, relative to normal, were in the Southeast and
Southwest

Five states had their hottest year on record

Some cities had their hottest year on record, including Albuquerque, Cleveland, Dallas, Phoenix, and Tampa. Moreover, the U.S. is having its warmest consecutive 24, 36, and 48 months on record, with more than 33,000 record highs set in each of the last three years. This total dwarfs the number of record lows set in that three-year period at a rate of 3.6-to-1. This warmth has been nearly independent of phase of the El Niño, as both warm and cold phases of the Pacific ocean phenomenon have occurred during that time.

EDIT

http://www.climatecentral.org/gallery/graphics/10-hottest-us-years-on-record

[True Dough]

1. hatrack, you post numerous links to stories about the urgency of addressing climate change

and yet I notice few of them, this one included, get little to no response. Why do you think that is? Is it a feeling of powerlessness, a lack of control?

I mean, Don the Con is president and the ReThugs control the house and senate. Dems have been reduced to little power, but that doesn't prevent DUers from railing against Dolt 45 in threads with well over 100 posts.

The idea that we're the frogs in a pot of gradually boiling water gets crickets. Is it because we remain dubious that there really is a problem on the scale that so many scientists forecast? Or that somehow it will miraculously be stopped or reversed by world leaders? That we, as individuals, really are helpless and we go along for the ride and hope for the best, perhaps making our own little contributions along the way but know that it's hardly making a dent?

[hatrack]

2. I thought you might have the answer . . . . .

Maybe it is powerlessness, maybe it's the incoming tide effect of all of it, all at once, all the time.

I think the reason I do this is to create a sense of control - an almost totally false one, I'll hasten to add.