Warmest Winter On Record

I'm quite certain that there will be people who claim, more snow than they've ever seen before, more rain than is usual and colder temperatures in their own little corner of the world. Of course, those people won't understand that weather and climate are different things. It doesn't matter, the December to February climate was .72C (1.3F) higher than the 20th century mean.

Is it proof of anthropogenic influenced global warming? No. It's not. And those who jump up and down and point at this report as such proof are just as wrong as those who refer to the jack-asses who claim that it's all a natural phenomenon.

This has been the world's warmest winter since record-keeping began more than a century ago, the U.S. government agency that tracks weather reported on Thursday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said the combined global land and ocean surface temperature from December through February was at its highest since records began in 1880.

A record-warm January was responsible for pushing up the combined winter temperature, according to the agency's Web site, http://www.noaa.gov.

"Contributing factors were the long-term trend toward warmer temperatures as well as a moderate El Nino in the Pacific," Jay Lawrimore of NOAA's National Climatic Data Center said in a telephone interview from Asheville, North Carolina.

This is proof that the planet is, in fact, enduring a warming trend. In fact, we're experiencing a faster warming trend than we ever have before. Previously it took a decade to see a .17C increase.