The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has released average global temperature data for the month of August, which shows that it was the hottest August on record, and also the hottest month of 2015. This also marks this year’s summer as the hottest on record, and puts 2015 in line to be the hottest year on record.
Despite a year of record-breaking temperatures, there is one region of the globe, in the North Atlantic Ocean just south of Greenland, where the temperature remains below average.
This phenomenon is being called the "Atlantic Blob," is structurally similar to its Pacific Blob counterpart, which is instead experiencing abnormally high temperatures, feeding the El Niño cycle that is currently under way there. The Atlantic blob is believed to be caused by the flow of cold water from melting glaciers in Greenland, the melt of which is being exacerbated by above-average temperatures.
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In extensive interviews with former Exxon employees, scientists and government officials, along with hundreds of pages of internal documents from Exxon, reporters at InsideClimate News (ICN) have discovered that Exxon (now ExxonMobil) conducted extensive research into global warming through increased carbon dioxide emissions between 1977 and 1986, in an effort to understand the impact their product would have on the Earth’s environment. read more
Meteorological officials in the United Kingdom are warning that the upcoming winter season could arrive early, and see both record snowfall and low temperatures. The conditions are expected to either reach or surpass conditions in the winter of 1962-63, when temperatures plunged to -20ºC.
The cause for this bleak forecast is due to the recent weakening of the Gulf Stream current in the North Atlantic, of which would normally bring warm water to the UK from further south. This situation is also being exacerbated by the current period of reduced solar output, and may be affected further by the super-El Niño currently being experienced in the Pacific.
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