2006 was warmest year on record for U.S.

NOAA announced today that 2006 was a record warm year for the U.S., but only the 6th warmest year globally.

The increasingly common strange weather events of the recent years have prompted many people to immediately point fingers at global warming. No single weather event, however, can ever be clearly blamed on our changing climate. Statistically, though, a warming climate means that certain weather events are more likely to occur. The anomalously warm winter experienced in the U.S. cannot be pinned on global warming, yet winters like this past one are much more likely to occur in the future.

NOAA has been conspicuously denying any links to global warmingWhile everyone is busy blaming global warming on the freaky weather, NOAA has been conspicuously denying any links to global warming and are all too quick to point the blame on El Niño. Our friends over at Realclimate.org nicely explain that the anomalous warmth of this past winter very closely resembles the warmth of the previous winter when we were in a weak La Niña. They then ask how El Niño can be to blame when the same thing happened during a La Niña, essentially the opposite of an El Niño. It also closely resembles the predicted pattern expected with climate warming.