This page is used for breaking news about climate matters. The monthly carbon dioxide concentrations and global, northern & southern hemisphere temperature anomalies are updated as soon as possible after they are available. Delays are usually due to the lateness of reporting by the Hadley Centre
GLOBAL COOLING?
The global temperature has not exceeded the 1998 value since that year and the trend [from satellite and terrestrial data] is near zero. Various people and organizations have been vociferously claiming that the atmosphere/surface system is in a cooling phase that 'disproves' the connection with rising CO2 concentrations, the global temperature did rise somewhat in 2009. The graph shows the Hadley Centre values (dots) and those from the UAH satellite (crosses). The data are plotted on the IPCC predictions which are clearly significantly higher than those observed since 2005, although the latest data (2009 & 2010) show some warming.
The annual increases in CO2 concentration are shown below for the last five years. The seasonal changes are very similar and there are similar increases annually in the concentration of the gas.
Claims that the temperature is decreasing are not supported by these data. That the trend is flat indicates that any warming from emissions of carbon is cancelled by some other [natural] cause. The extraordinarily high anomaly around 1998 was principally caused by an El Nino event that was due to upwelling of warmer water in the south-western Pacific Ocean. A very recent La Nina event has caused the temperature decrease in the last months of 2010. The apparent discrepancy between the two sets of data is due to their different bases. The UAH satellite record is 0.259 C lower than the HADCRUT3.