Live data from Hacker News

Arctic temperatures soar 25 degrees above normal in the dead of winter

smh.com.au

31–40 of 152 posts

Re: Arctic temperatures soar 25 degrees above normal in the dead of winter

#31
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Granted, but I can just picture the people posting this to Facebook citing it as definitive proof that the world is melting.

If your standard is worrying about what people will post on FB then paralysis is your only option.

What? Facebook shapes public opinion, so does this site. Is public opinion not worth worrying about?

Re: Arctic temperatures soar 25 degrees above normal in the dead of winter

#32
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your standard is worrying about what people will post on FB then paralysis is your only option.

What? Facebook shapes public opinion, so does this site. Is public opinion not worth worrying about?

A huge majority of public opinion as expressed on FB is just the echo of some bot, somewhere. Maybe it matters in some sense, but again, if you pander to thst standard you will never say a word.

Re: Arctic temperatures soar 25 degrees above normal in the dead of winter

#33
post #2

Anecdotal: Here in Toronto, it's been 16˚C this past week. In February. We've had about 2 or 3 real snowfalls that stuck around for a few days before melting. As somebody who loves ice skating outside, it's really frustrating. And I love the snow. Every year it seems like the winter gets a little milder...

>Every year it seems like the winter gets a little milder...

yes it does.

Re: Arctic temperatures soar 25 degrees above normal in the dead of winter

#34
post #4

Using events like this to illustrate that global warming is happening is about as scientifically significant as when Trump used the recent US cold snap to imply that global warming isn't happening. I'm not saying climate change doesn't exist--it certainly does--but outlying events like this aren't by themselves particularly unusual. "Normal", after all, is at the top of a bell curve, and deviations from normal should…

At this point believing or not believing in climate change is analogous to religion. I have trouble believing any facts or data would swing a significant portion of either side of the debate. Denying climate change is easy. We're not going to see places like New York City move swiftly underwater and the problem is so abstract it's easy to call BS. Short of Trump changing his mind and using his super power of convincing conservatives to go along with things they otherwise never would have gone along with we will continue in this pattern for probably our life time.

Re: Arctic temperatures soar 25 degrees above normal in the dead of winter

#35
post #18
post #9

Note that this is in Celsius - for us Americans, this is 45 degrees Fahrenheit above normal.

25°c is 77°f, not 45.

It's a temperature difference, not an absolute temperature

25deltaC = 45deltaF (just multiply by 1.8 for delta C to F)

Re: Arctic temperatures soar 25 degrees above normal in the dead of winter

#36
post #34
post #4

Using events like this to illustrate that global warming is happening is about as scientifically significant as when Trump used the recent US cold snap to imply that global warming isn't happening. I'm not saying climate change doesn't exist--it certainly does--but outlying events like this aren't by themselves particularly unusual. "Normal", after all, is at the top of a bell curve, and deviations from normal should…

At this point believing or not believing in climate change is analogous to religion. I have trouble believing any facts or data would swing a significant portion of either side of the debate. Denying climate change is easy. We're not going to see places like New York City move swiftly underwater and the problem is so abstract it's easy to call BS. Short of Trump changing his mind and using his super power of convinci…

Climate change denialism has more in common with Flat Earth Theory than religion of any stripe. (Which makes so many Americans buying into it all the more frighting.)

Re: Arctic temperatures soar 25 degrees above normal in the dead of winter

#37
post #3

Didn't the same happen last year, with arctic polar region being warmer than sub-arctic latitudes? Maybe it's the new normal climate or at least semi-persistent like El Niño?

It actually says so in the article, “This next batch of abnormally warm air is forecast to shoot the gap between Greenland and northern Europe through the Greenland and Barents seas. Similar circumstances occurred in December 2016, when the temperature at the North Pole last flirted with the melting point in the dark, dead of winter. Similarly large jumps in temperature were documented in November 2016 and December 2…

A few years of this does not make it normal.

While we're quoting the article:

> These kinds of temperature anomalies in the Arctic have become commonplace in winter in the past few years.

Implying they haven't been in the past.

Re: Arctic temperatures soar 25 degrees above normal in the dead of winter

#38

Warmer temperatures will mean we may need to change where we farm our food and move some cities but it's much better than things getting colder. It may even be better than the current climate, given it may actually increase the amount of land where food is arable.

Sure, just a simple little matter of rearranging our entire food supply; relocating at least 39% of the US population, not to mention a few hundred million residents of China, India, Bangladesh, etc.; decades or centuries of turbulent and unpredictable weather (hurricanes are so exciting!); massive ecological upheaval during which most species on earth either have to migrate to new habitats, evolve, or go extinct (and don't forget it'll be the shortest-lifespan creatures that will adapt most quickly to their new circumstances -- so goodbye trees, hello swarms of insects!)

Sure. Great idea. Brilliant. Why wouldn't we welcome it?

Re: Arctic temperatures soar 25 degrees above normal in the dead of winter

#39
post #2

Anecdotal: Here in Toronto, it's been 16˚C this past week. In February. We've had about 2 or 3 real snowfalls that stuck around for a few days before melting. As somebody who loves ice skating outside, it's really frustrating. And I love the snow. Every year it seems like the winter gets a little milder...

Anecdotal: 3 days ago it hit 78˚F/25.6˚C here in NYC, the hottest ever recorded for Feb 21 and ever recorded for all of Feb. The previous record for Feb 21 was 68˚F/20˚C in 1930. The previous hottest day in all of February was 75˚F/23.9˚C in 1985. The average high temp for NYC in Feb is usually 44˚F/6.7˚C. This year it's 49˚F/9.4˚C.

Re: Arctic temperatures soar 25 degrees above normal in the dead of winter

#40
post #4

Using events like this to illustrate that global warming is happening is about as scientifically significant as when Trump used the recent US cold snap to imply that global warming isn't happening. I'm not saying climate change doesn't exist--it certainly does--but outlying events like this aren't by themselves particularly unusual. "Normal", after all, is at the top of a bell curve, and deviations from normal should…

Even single data points can be statistically significant if they are extreme enough. But here is a fact that often gets ignored: the Northwest Passage, which was famously impassable for centuries, now regularly has civilian cruise ships navigating it in the summer. I was on such a cruise a few years ago. Not only was the NWP navigable, we actually had to go out of our way to find any sea ice at all.
Post reply on HN