West Coast coastal land and ocean warming caused by weaker winds

Warmer weather, warmer water;
caused by weaker winds, science, bro

Los Angeles Times/Tony Barboza, 9/22/14.  "West Coast warming linked to naturally occurring changes."

Higher tides, global warming

"Naturally occurring changes in winds, not human-caused climate change, are responsible for most of the warming on land and in the sea along the West Coast of North America over the last century, a study has found.  The analysis challenges assumptions that the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has been a significant driver of the increase in temperatures observed over many decades in the ocean and along the coastline from Alaska to California.

Changes in ocean circulation as a result of weaker winds were the main cause of about 1 degree Fahrenheit of warming in the northeast Pacific Ocean and nearby coastal land between 1900 and 2012, according to the analysis of ocean and air temperatures over that time. The study, conducted by researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Washington, was published Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

....   "There is no doubt that regionally, the changes in temperature are dominated by changes in the atmospheric circulation that likely have little or nothing to do with climate change," Trenberth* said. But, he added, "this does not call into question the concept of global warming."   Read article.

* Note Kevin Trenberth is a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Co. 

Submitted by Robert Hutchinson

Pacifica Pier by Ed Grant from Piers of the CA Coast.  Matthew McConaughey Surfer Dude from Amazon.

Posted by Kathy Meeh