What Does This Say About Global Warming?

By Paul Yeager, author of Weather Whys: Facts, Myths, and Oddities

After one of the coldest winters on record, the summer has been the hottest on record for many southern climes…and the result is that temperatures during the past 12 months (September 2009 through August 2010) have average close to or even below normal.

I talked about this in a recent AOL News article: Intense Summer Heat Balances Winter’s Big Chill.

What I didn’t address in the article is what this might say about global warming, and as always, it most likely depends on what you want it to say–and perhaps what your political affiliation may be:

• We’re all going to die!
• This calendar year, which doesn’t match up with the 12 months referred to in the article, has been the hottest to date, so global warming is going on unabated.
• This summer (2010) has been ridiculously hot–proof of global warming.
• Last winter was one of the 20 coldest in history from a national perspective–global warming talk is about to end in a sea of cold.
• Extremes are normal in weather, and this is proof that the weather is normal.
• Extremes are a reflection of global warming, and what more proof do you need that this?
• One year of data for one nation (0r one portion of one nation) is not enough information on which to reach conclusions related to global warming even if that one year includes dramatically cold and dramatically hot weather.

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