NASA will no doubt be having a press conference on their updated global temperature records, soon – for now, Zeke Hausfather alerted me to some of the European numbers, from the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Zeke points out that 2021 is “cooler” – definitely a relative term for the 5th warmest year in the record – due to the impact of the current La Nina conditions in the Pacific. I did an explainer on the El Nino-La Nina cycle a few years ago with Kevin Trenberth, Josh Willis and others.
Deniers will say, “Oh, the earth is cooling now.”
A trend in climate is defined as 30 years of time which ever way the data is trending.
I’ve wondered about the scientists’ descriptions leaving out the part where the ocean is a big part of global warming. (All ENSO represents is a “tide” of heat moving into and out of the atmosphere from the ocean.) They stick with the TV meteorologist references to “temperatures” only applying to land and atmosphere. This gives deniers another toehold of disunderstanding.
Ah, well….