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Mercury stalled in Greenland

15 Mar 2023 | Science Notes

Courtesy of Kenneth Richard of No Tricks Zone we learn of a new study in the Journal of Climate measuring the warming of Greenland. Or rather lack of it, at least after 1994. The authors compiled all the available temperature data from 1958 to 2020 and found that, rather than the upward trend you might expect from steadily increasing greenhouse gases, and press wailing about the Greenland ice pack vanishing, temperatures were flat there from 1958 to 1993, then they jumped a degree C or so in 1994, and have been flat ever since. Only the northern part of Greenland has exhibited continued warming. The authors also point out that this pattern can be explained by natural variability associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation and a pressure pattern called the Greenland Blocking Index, if that is you acknowledge it at all.

Referring to temperature records collected at 2 meters off the surface (T2m), the authors state:

“In this study we report a significant jump in Greenland near-surface air temperature (T2m) around 1994, with relatively stable temperatures in the periods before (1958–93) and after (1994–2020). Exceptions are the north and northeast of Greenland, where the latter period shows continued warming. Large-scale atmospheric circulation variability can effectively explain this interdecadal variability of Greenland T2m.”

Richard points out that this is similar to findings reported earlier in the International Journal of Climatology in 2019. The authors of that paper focused on coastal data and found:

“Significant summer (winter) coastal warming of ~1.7 (4.4) C occurred from 1991–2019, but since 2001 overall temperature trends are generally flat and insignificant due to a cooling pattern over the last 6–7 years.”

With climate change it’s always worse than we thought and getting worse yet, with headlines hollering about the impending doom, except when the data show it’s less than we thought and not getting worse, in which case we get radio silence and no one bothers to tell you about it. Which is why you read CDN and, hopefully, share it with your friends.

One comment on “Mercury stalled in Greenland”

  1. A 1c rise in one year is not real, it has to be an anomaly caused by a step change in measuring systems? And assuming is real does that mean the average temperature rose from -28 to -27C?

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