Despite cold start, 2008 could be one of warmest years ever, because of global warming

(Photo of skier in Norway from Flickr and photographer Marika)

Xtreme Weather: The deniers are giddily blogging up a storm about the cold, snowy winter, believing it proves global warming is a hoax. But word from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia (which supplies data to the UN) is that this year could be one of the 10 warmest on record. Once La Niña, the cooling of the Pacific, gets behind us, temperatures could turn nice and toasty, like they did in 1998 and 2005, two of the hottest years. They too started off cold. There was plenty of snow this winter, making skiers happy, but burying China with the worst winter storms in a century and dropping rare snowflakes on Florida, Iraq and Greece. Despite deep snow, Norway had its third warmest winter, and Finland the warmest on record. Predictions before the year began were for the year to be similar to last year, because La Niña would counteract some of the warming trend. But don’t be surprise if we have a hot summer. (Reuters)

Worldwide, the UN predicts a 2008 cooler than 2007. See
the Daily Green .