Comments on: Cooler, 2008 Still Ranks in the Top 10 http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2008/12/22/cooler-2008-still-ranks-in-the-top-10/ Tapping experts in climate, geology, oceanography, ecology, sustainable development, global health, energy, food and water, State of the Planet captures stories of how the Earth works and how we can sustainably make our lives better. Fri, 17 May 2013 14:54:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: La Niña Conditions to Continue? : Climate Matters @ Columbia http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2008/12/22/cooler-2008-still-ranks-in-the-top-10/comment-page-1/#comment-11 La Niña Conditions to Continue? : Climate Matters @ Columbia Mon, 23 Feb 2009 15:25:16 +0000 http://climate.columbia.edu/blog/?p=104#comment-11 [...] mentioned in an earlier post, La Niña events are characterized by unusually cold sea surface temperatures (SST) in the central [...]

]]> By: cvaughan http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2008/12/22/cooler-2008-still-ranks-in-the-top-10/comment-page-1/#comment-10 cvaughan Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:32:18 +0000 http://climate.columbia.edu/blog/?p=104#comment-10 Hi, all –

A bit more on this: Brad Lyon of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) — who originally tipped me off to this idea — has pointed out that it was the 1997-98 El Nino that helped push 1998 to the top of the heap in terms of global average temps.

He has also developed a plot that shows global average temperatures and an indicator of the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO).

The graph indicates the effect of ENSO on a general upward trend in global temperature. While there are, of course, a number of sources of variability in the climate system, it’s pretty clear from this graphic that a year or two of La Nina does not make a trend.

Anyway, check it out here:

http://tinyurl.com/777cs3

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