While talk of the United Nation's Climate Change Summit, being held this Tuesday Sept. 23 in New York City, is spreading across social media, the skeptics appear in large numbers. Though Southern Californians may have changed their minds with the recent heat waves in the 100's, many individuals are on the fence regarding conflicting reports of the greenhouse gas effect and climate change due to fossil fuel emissions. Looking to the unusual heat and searching for evidence of a changing global climate, researchers and politicians have turned to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for answers.
And if you've felt the scorching heat of this 2014 summer has been hotter than any before, you are absolutely right!
According to a report recently released by the NOAA, the summer of 2014, between the months of June and August, averaged a global temperature of 62.78 degrees Fahrenheit; 1.28 degrees higher than the average of last century, and the warmest summer on record since documenting began in 1880.
While the global temperature may have only average 62.78 degree Fahrenheit, local temperatures throughout the United States reached new ceilings in excess of 105 degrees. The NOAA reports that while land temperatures soared in the record-breaking heat of the 2014 summer, the vast oceans contributed most to the warming trends during the summer this year.
Global surface temperatures of the oceans rose to 1.13 degrees above the 20th century average, and are the highest currently on record. However, while the oceans and several nations felt the heat like Southern Californians did, much of the United States experienced much cooler anomalies. The lower 48 states had the coolest summer since 2009 and the ninth wettest summer to date, while California suffered through a life-altering drought.
Though the report does not directly link correlations between environmental factors or greenhouse gases to the record-breaking heat wave, the climate change summit couldn't possibly ignore the city heat, as the first eight months of 2014 point towards one of the hottest years on record.
