Extreme Events of 2012: Global to Local Responses
Featured Video, January 15, 2013
The entire Northern Hemisphere was warm during 2012. Drought affected agricultural regions in North America, Europe, eastern Russia, the Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. These warm conditions impacted grain yields, water supplies, and heat-related illness. Global food prices rose by 10 percent during July. Learning how our neighbors around the world cope with and adapt to extreme events can help us make better decisions, become more resilient, and be “climate smart.”
January 9, 2013
Drought, cold, and massive storms were among the devastating climate-related events that struck the United States in 2012. These events were incredibly destructive and disruptive for people across the country. A better understanding of the relationship between climate and extreme weather is challenging, but it’s important, and it will help our nation become even more “climate smart.”
The Pushy Pacific: Variability and Change in Global Temperature
December 17, 2012
When the Pacific Ocean warms and cools with El Niño and La Niña, global temperatures rise and fall. Because there was a La Niña event in the early part of this year, the global surface temperature for 2012 won’t break the high temperature record. However, the odds are that this will be the warmest of the La Niña years in the global climate record.
December 6, 2012 Ned Gardiner
It’s natural to associate drought with heat and with summer, but drought also impacts us during winter months. Winter wheat yields are declining, and the Mississippi River is approaching an all-time low. Understanding drought conditions and how they are affecting us is part of being “climate smart.”
Resilience and Energy: Coastal Management Ensures Supply
November 27, 2012
Port Fourchon sits on the very edge of the country, all the better for vessels shuttling supplies to and from deepwater oil platforms across miles and miles of ocean. Keeping it open is a big deal because the port services 90 percent of all deepwater activity in the Gulf of Mexico. Port Director Chett Chiasson tours the harbor while discussing the importance of preparedness, adaptation, and resilience.
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Talking about the Arctic with NOAA Administrator Lubchenco
December 6, 2012 Brian Kahn
It may seem remote from our everyday lives, but the Arctic exerts a powerful influence on the rest of the planet. From rising sea level, to U.S. and European weather, to bird migrations, NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco describes how Arctic climate change can influence the rest of the planet.
2012 Arctic Report Card
December 5, 2012 NOAA Climate.gov team
The central Arctic was not as unusually warm in 2012 as it has been in many years this decade, and yet new records were set for sea ice extent, terrestrial snow extent, melting at the surface of the Greenland ice sheet, and permafrost temperature. According to the 2012 Arctic Report Card, these converging indicators “provide strong evidence of the momentum that has developed in the Arctic environmental system due to the impacts of a persistent warming trend that began over 30 years ago.”
2012—Warmest La Niña Year on Record
Jan 15th, 2013
After running the numbers for 2012, NOAA reported that the global average temperature in 2012 was 1.03° Fahrenheit above average, ranking it as the 10th warmest year since record keeping began in 1880. Although 2012 warmth did not top the charts, it was unusual in another way: it was the warmest “La Niña year” on record.
