Temperature Monitors Report Widescale Global Cooling — Daily Tech

Anecdotal evidence of temperature drops all over the globe have now been replaced by hard science.

Over the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snowcover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile — the list goes on and on.

No more than anecdotal evidence, to be sure. But now, that evidence has been supplanted by hard scientific fact. All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA’s GISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously.

A compiled list of all the sources can be seen here. The total amount of cooling ranges from 0.65C up to 0.75C — a value large enough to wipe out nearly all the warming recorded over the past 100 years. All in one year’s time. For all four sources, it’s the single fastest temperature change ever recorded, either up or down.

The statement “[a] value large enough to wipe out nearly all the warming recorded over the past 100 years” is profound. Of course, the money-makers have their bases covered:

Let’s hope those factors stop fast. Cold is more damaging than heat. The mean temperature of the planet is about 54 degrees. Humans — and most of the crops and animals we depend on — prefer a temperature closer to 70.

Historically, the warm periods such as the Medieval Climate Optimum were beneficial for civilization. Corresponding cooling events such as the Little Ice Age, though, were uniformly bad news.

Ok, so which is it, again? I forgot. Is “global warming” good or bad?

More global warming debunking here.

4 years on Mars: Rovers Continue to Amaze — Space.com

The Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity were given 90 days to get their science done, but four years later, the rovers are still roving.

Since the rovers bounced onto Mars’ surface, they have collectively driven more than 11.8 miles (19.1 kilometers) and snapped more than 210,000 images. That’s roughly 55 standard DVD movies worth of uncompressed data.

Scientists have used this information through the years to crank out more than 100 studies about the planet’s geologic past “with many more in progress,” Lemmon said.

“It’s been a great year for the rovers and we’re getting deeper into Martian history than we’ve been done before,” Lemmon said. “These robots have entirely changed the way we view Mars.”

I have no idea how a hopeful 90-day mission turned into a still-going four-year mission; it seems like a pretty wide gap of prediction on the part of NASA. Regardless, it is always good to see space missions that go better than expected.

Voyager 2 is About to Cross the Termination Shock — Universe Today

Voyager 2 is about to cross the termination shock, the point where the sun’s particles slow to subsonic speeds. This “solar wind” is flowing at supersonic speed as it leaves the sun, but due to the resistance of the “interstellar wind” flowing the other way, it slows down to subsonic speed at the termination shock.

The next level is the heliopause, which is the area where the solar wind is completely halted, and at which point the Voyager 2 spacecraft will officially be outside of our solar system.

Click on the image for a full size.

2007 Yearly Tropical Cyclone Activity to Date — COAPS

Last year the headline on this blog read, “Quietest Hurricane Season In Decade.” This year’s blog entry now has to go back to 1977 to find a less active hurricane season.

The link goes to real analysis that uses real science, not that take-it-on-faith, religion of “global warming.” If you, reader, would like to partake in some science, please click on the link above (also check out my ongoing global warming post). If you prefer to blame the lack of activity on a conspiracy between George Bush and Halliburton, this one might be better.