U.S. mean temperature (January-September) warmest on record.

October 20, 2000 5:26 PM

U.S. mean temperature (January-September) warmest on record. That's in 105 years. Something to be alarmed about? Maybe, maybe not, but call me concerned, folks. Given the fact that we don't seem to have winter around here anymore, I guess our grandkids will be asking us, "Hey, tell us about the time it was cold!".

Pardon me for posting links in rapid succession; the NCDC website is obscenely slow, if you can get to it at all.
posted by Mr. skullhead (4 comments total)

The Earth goes through periods of global warming/cooling on a regular basis. Right now we're still moving away from the last ice age towards warmer times, after which temperatures will start to go downhill again, towards another ice age. While technology, o-zone depletion, and other human-caused phenomena share the responsibility, the large portion of this cycle is natural.
posted by tomorama at 6:07 PM on October 20, 2000

some of the ice-core analysis in the last couple of years shows evidence of Extreme natural temperature changes in the earth's geologic past...105 years isn't much in the big picture.
posted by th3ph17 at 6:23 PM on October 20, 2000

In the grand scale of things, you'd never be able to notice global warming the way they teach you in science 9 (or was it 10?)... any percieved changes are within reasonable bounds...
But I still think we're going downhill, and eventually we'll have it like in a Phillip K Dick novel... but that prolly won't happen for a while yet...
posted by Bane at 12:34 AM on October 21, 2000

extenuating circumstances notwithstanding, i'm throughly enjoying a chicago october in which i don't have to wear long johns, jeans, a t-shirt, sweater, light jacket for indoors, heavy coat for outside and boots.

but i guess i could be persuaded to feel guilty. it'd take some work though.
posted by patricking at 11:12 AM on October 21, 2000