Where did the heat go?

Question

Something significant happened to global temperatures in January. While barbs are being thrown ("one month of global cooling wiped out a century of global warming"), I find this is interesting and not from pro/anti-warming perspective.

To cool the entire globe as much as the data says requires that an immense amount of heat left the atmosphere and the surface. Where did it go? What are the processes (physics) involved?

All I can come up with is a super La Nina. It would have to be more powerful than the '98 El Nino which was huge! I'm hoping for something better than my simple conjecture.

Is there an answer with data to support it?

Has anyone actually determined where the heat went?

Answer 1

the heat didn't go any where, it was simply countered by global dimming. you see only select gases cause the green house affect, some of the other (including water vapor) gases reflect sun light and there for heat, this is called global dimming. Global dimming counter acts 2/3's of the effects of global warming. so with every increasing flights wold wide and the vapor trails the create, the earth sometimes cools off. this in now why means we can relax, the over all trend is still going up.

Answer 2

Gary, all that is PROVEN by this is that humanity and CO2 are NOT causing global warming.  Otherwise, we could not have had this recent decline or the really big one during the 1960s and 1970s - as the CO2 content of the atmosphere increased.

The Hansen/Gore Big Lie is revealed.  But will we get our money back?  Gore has been selling 'carbon credits'!

What causes this trend?  The sunspot activity.  More sunspots means more wavelengths that warm the Earth and the rest of the planets.  We have been watching the rest of the planets warm up in recent years too.

Answer 3

Most of the sun's heat reflects into space.  It's always been this way, but the greenhouse layer keeps enough of it here to keep us from freezing each night.

The changes in temperature have to do with many variations that come into effect, like the orbit of the earth and sun activity to name a few.  A lot of the warming cycles coincide with solar flares and sun spot activity.

As we all suspected, humans, animals and insects have next to nothing to do with how hot or cold the planet becomes.  Since all heat comes from the sun, we're completely dependent on it for all life here.

I knew that once we started into another cooling cycle people would realize the "global warming" hype was all a scam.  Too bad we wasted all that money and time on such a silly subject when it was just a natural occurrence.

Answer 4

Here's NASA Director Dr. James Hansen's take on it:

http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/listorg...

"The maps are used to show that, even averaged over a month, local weather anomalies (dynamical fluctuations, more-or-less independent of forced long-term climate change) are much larger than the global mean temperature change of recent decades.1 Weather fluctuations or ‘noise’ have a noticeable effect even on monthly-mean global-mean temperature, especially in Northern Hemisphere winter. Weather has little effect on global-mean temperature averaged over several months or more. The primary cause of variations on time scales from a few months to a few years is ocean dynamics, especially the Southern Oscillation (El Nino – La Nina cycle), although an occasional large volcano can have a cooling effect that lasts a few years. The 10-11 year cycle of solar irradiance has a just barely detectable effect on global temperature, no more than about 0.1°C, much less noticeable than El Nino/La Nina fluctuations."

Answer 5

Nina/nino do have the ability to sustain air temperatures or absorb heat from the air. We are also in a minor low in solar output.

We have had some increase in reflectivity as a result of cloud cover, and the reason for increased cloud cover is lower temperature.

So, where did heat go:

Nina: deeper waters of pacific ocean.

Solar output has been lower in previous years too.

Reflectivity: outer space.

Next question, will that heat come back?

Nino: Yes.

Solar output: yes, not quickly.

Reflectivity: Heat lost will not be returned, but reduced reflectivity will return (or we enter a mini ice age.)

Answer 6

It is amazing that the whole global warming trend is a statistical number game when you come to realize that all the measuring equipment has a +/-.5 degree error and they say we have warmed up .1 degree.

    The answer has always been in the tree's (No kidding it is called growth rings) a unbiased record that proves that it just a cyclic event.

   I just think it is funny that the GW crowd's favorite data set is now 8 years old that proves global warming and when they start adding in the data after 1999-2007 the whole trend is lost.

Answer 7

It's a simple answer, the sun.

http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/200...