{"id":388,"date":"2009-02-24T14:29:57","date_gmt":"2009-02-24T22:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?p=388"},"modified":"2009-02-24T14:29:57","modified_gmt":"2009-02-24T22:29:57","slug":"was-2008-relatively-warm-or-cool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/02\/24\/was-2008-relatively-warm-or-cool\/","title":{"rendered":"Was 2008 Relatively Warm or Cool?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Answer: Both. It depends on your historical time frame.<\/p>\n<p>With a global average surface temperature of 79 degrees Fahrenheit, 2008 was the coolest year since 2000, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/topics\/earth\/features\/2008_temps.html\">according to climatologists <\/a>at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). But it&#8217;s also the ninth-warmest year since 1880, so it&#8217;s probably not time to invest in a ski resort just yet.<\/p>\n<p>Including the 2008 dip, the 10 warmest years on record (since 1880) have all occurred between 1997 and 2008, according to NASA.<\/p>\n<p>The NASA scientists attribute 2008&#8217;s relatively lower temperature to a cooler Pacific Ocean, due to a strong <a title=\"NOAA La Nina\" href=\"http:\/\/www.elnino.noaa.gov\/lanina.html\">La Nina<\/a> pattern in the first half of 2008. La Nina and El Nino are opposite phases of a natural oscillation of\u00a0 upwelling and subsequent temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/images\/content\/314648main_graph_temp_lg.jpg\">2008 temperatures<\/a> in the United States were cooler than any other year this decade, but, as illustrated on the map below, other parts of the world such as Eurasia and the Arctic were exceptionally warm.<\/p>\n<p>Director of GISS James Hansen predicts that because a shift to El Nino is expected to start this year or next, it &#8220;still seems likely&#8221; that we&#8217;ll see a new record high for the average global surface air temperature in that time frame.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-393\" src=\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2009\/02\/smallmain_graph_temp_lg1.jpg\" alt=\"smallmain_graph_temp_lg1\" width=\"497\" height=\"174\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.kqed.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2009\/02\/smallmain_graph_temp_lg1.jpg 497w, https:\/\/cdn.kqed.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2009\/02\/smallmain_graph_temp_lg1-160x56.jpg 160w, https:\/\/cdn.kqed.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2009\/02\/smallmain_graph_temp_lg1-240x84.jpg 240w, https:\/\/cdn.kqed.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2009\/02\/smallmain_graph_temp_lg1-375x131.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 497px) 100vw, 497px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Answer: Both. It depends on your historical time frame.<br \/>\nWith a global average surface temperature of 79 degrees Fahrenheit, 2008 was the coolest year since 2000, according to climatologists at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). But it&#8217;s also the ninth-warmest year since 1880.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11413,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[184,305,320,375,401,581],"coauthors":[],"series":[],"affiliates":[],"programs":[],"collections":[],"interests":[],"class_list":["post-388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-el-nino","tag-james-hansen","tag-la-nina","tag-nasa","tag-oceans","tag-temperature"],"acf":{"template_type":"standard","featured_image_type":"standard","is_audio_post":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.13 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Was 2008 Relatively Warm or Cool? | Climate Watch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/02\/24\/was-2008-relatively-warm-or-cool\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Was 2008 Relatively Warm or Cool? | Climate Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Answer: Both. It depends on your historical time frame. With a global average surface temperature of 79 degrees Fahrenheit, 2008 was the coolest year since 2000, according to climatologists at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). But it&#039;s also the ninth-warmest year since 1880.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/02\/24\/was-2008-relatively-warm-or-cool\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Climate Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-02-24T22:29:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2009\/02\/smallmain_graph_temp_lg1.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gretchen Weber\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gretchen Weber\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/02\/24\/was-2008-relatively-warm-or-cool\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/02\/24\/was-2008-relatively-warm-or-cool\/\",\"name\":\"Was 2008 Relatively Warm or Cool? | Climate Watch\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-02-24T22:29:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-02-24T22:29:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/f9b8aa644ab929c00fff60cc0fd340f5\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/02\/24\/was-2008-relatively-warm-or-cool\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/02\/24\/was-2008-relatively-warm-or-cool\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/02\/24\/was-2008-relatively-warm-or-cool\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Was 2008 Relatively Warm or Cool?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/\",\"name\":\"Climate Watch\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/f9b8aa644ab929c00fff60cc0fd340f5\",\"name\":\"Gretchen Weber\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/e524b6febe575d1cb1233bc6fc23c0de\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9b3bceed2622b2e3939de1b6f09681f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9b3bceed2622b2e3939de1b6f09681f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gretchen Weber\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/author\/gweber\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Was 2008 Relatively Warm or Cool? | Climate Watch","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/02\/24\/was-2008-relatively-warm-or-cool\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Was 2008 Relatively Warm or Cool? | Climate Watch","og_description":"Answer: Both. 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