2007 one of the ten warmest years on record; Seventh warmest for Virginia

According to a report issued last week from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the year 2007 will go down as one of the 10 warmest years on record for not only the contiguous United States, but also the entire planet.

In the United States:

The preliminary annual average temperature for 2007 across the contiguous United States will likely be near 54.3° F- 1.5°F (0.8°C) above the twentieth century average of 52.8°F. This currently establishes 2007 as the eighth warmest on record. Only February and April were cooler-than-average, while March and August were second warmest in the 113-year record.

The warmer-than-average conditions in 2007 influenced residential energy demand in opposing ways, as measured by the nation’s Residential Energy Demand Temperature Index. Using this index, NOAA scientists determined that the U.S. residential energy demand was about three percent less during the winter and eight percent higher during the summer than what would have occurred under average climate conditions.

Exceptional warmth in late March was followed by a record cold outbreak from the central Plains to the Southeast in early April. The combination of premature growth from the March warmth and the record-breaking freeze behind it caused more than an estimated $1 billion in losses to crops (agricultural and horticultural).

A severe heat wave affected large parts of the central and southeastern U.S. in August, setting more than 2,500 new daily record highs.

Across the globe:

The global annual temperature − for combined land and ocean surfaces – for 2007 is expected to be near 58.0 F – and would be the fifth warmest since records began in 1880. Some of the largest and most widespread warm anomalies occurred from eastern Europe to central Asia.

Including 2007, seven of the eight warmest years on record have occurred since 2001 and the 10 warmest years have all occurred since 1997. The global average surface temperature has risen between 0.6°C and 0.7°C since the start of the twentieth century, and the rate of increase since 1976 has been approximately three times faster than the century-scale trend.

The greatest warming has taken place in high latitude regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Anomalous warmth in 2007 contributed to the lowest Arctic sea ice extent since satellite records began in 1979, surpassing the previous record low set in 2005 by a remarkable 23 percent. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, this is part of a continuing trend in end-of-summer Arctic sea ice extent reductions of about 10 percent per decade since 1979.

Obviously a scary report. And when whack jobs on the right, and those who reject proven Science dismiss this as "hippie Liberal political games," just remember the report came from the National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration, not Al Gore, MoveOn.org or any other perceived "radical left" organizations that often land on the right wing's list of favorite targets.

On the flip though, and to be fair, this single report does not by itself definitively prove anything. However, added to the mounting evidence that shows global warming to be very real, and a very serious threat to Earth as we know it, I think we can all agree that we must work to get it under control and adopt better environmental policies as a national and international community.