A growing body of evidence suggests that the kind of extreme cold experienced by the United States is a pattern we can expect to see with increasing frequency as global warming continues. I believe the odds are that we can expect as a result of global warming to see more of this pattern of extreme cold. --Dr John Holdren,
President Obama’s science and technology adviser, 7 January 2014
Climate change is unlikely to lead to more days of extreme cold, similar to those that gripped the USA in a deep freeze last winter … Recent changes in the Arctic climate have actually reduced the risk of cold extremes across large swathes of the Northern Hemisphere.—
University of Exeter, 16 June 2014
For the last month or so, both the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the US and Australia's Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) have been predicting that an El Nino is likely to develop in the Pacific later this year as a large bubble of warm water rises off Indonesia and moves eastwards towards the western coast of the Americas. However, Pacific Ocean sea surface warming has “levelled off” in recent weeks and changes in key measures run “counter to typical El Nino development” while computer model forecasts of the so called El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) have eased, according to BoM. --
Reporting Climate Science, 17 June 2014
Last March saw the highest subsurface ocean temperatures ever measured so early in an El Niño event. Speculation suggested this year’s event might be a repeat of the super El Niño of 1997-98. That one was the exclamation point at the end of the last massive global warming cycle that stopped 15 years ago. New model forecasts out this month suggest that the consensus probability of El Niño this summer and winter is higher than ever, up to 80 percent by midwinter. However, those hoping El Niño 2014 will kick-start another round of global warming may be greatly disappointed. Basically, the PDO this year is sucking the heat out of El Niño 2014. --
Inform the Pundits, 12 June 2014
This year could be the hottest ever, due to the high possibility of an El Niño weather phenomenon. Piers Forster, a professor of climate change at Leeds University, told RTCC that an El Niño combined with the effects of global warming, could make 2014 the hottest year on record. “The prediction that 2014 will be the hottest year on record is a rough estimate but based on sound physics and the latest predictions for the growing El Niño during the remainder of the year,” said Forster. --Sophie Yeo,
Responding to Climate Change, 17 June 2014
There has been some discussion recently about the possibility of an El Nino starting later this year and if it will restart global warming. Certainly if the usual effect of an El Nino – warming of the surface waters of the equatorial Pacific – happens and the global annual average surface temperature reaches a new record because of it, perhaps only by a few thousandths of a degree, then it will be hailed by some as a “resumption” of global warming... I don’t think that it will be a record breaker because there is less heat stored in the Pacific now than there was in the years preceding the 1997-8 event. --David Whitehouse,
The Global Warming Policy Foundation, 13 May 2014
Scientists are warning that global warming could make the El Nino a permanent feature of the world's weather system. El Nino events normally occur roughly every 5 years, and last for between 12 and 18 months. However unpublished scientific research now suggests that the complex weather systems could occur every 3 years, making them a dominant weather pattern and in effect, almost permanent. --
BBC News, 7 November 1997
As for the Incas placating the Gods for a bit of bad weather, are we really so much more advanced these days? We might no longer sacrifice lives, but our efforts to placate the Gods of Decarbonisation will probably be regarded by future generations as just as pointless. – Paul Homewood,
Not A Lot Of People Know That, 16 June 2014
