Record heat, again
The forecast is for temperatures in Western Pennsylvania to be in the low to mid-90s this weekend. We should feel lucky, because much of the nation has been and will be hotter.
Our climate is not prone to extremes. We needn’t worry about temperatures soaring past 100 F here in the near future, but we ought to be very concerned about the rise of global temperature.
Last year was the warmest year worldwide since records were first kept in 1880, according to NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces in 2015 was 1.62 F above the 20th century average, NOAA said, surpassing 2014’s record by 0.29 F. This is the largest margin by which the annual global temperature record has been broken.
Fifteen of the 16 warmest years on record have occurred since 2001. The 16th year was 1998, which tied with 2009.
These are the facts, and they are indisputable. Certainly, it can be argued what the cause of the warming is, and debate about what to do about global temperature rise is necessary. But to ignore the evidence is silly.