Climate change questioned after 2008 tipped to be coolest year of the century
-2008 tipped to be coolest year of the century
-Global warming debate reopened
WHILE the official figures are not yet in, 2008 is widely tipped to be declared the coolest year of the century.
Whether this is a serious blow to global warming alarmists depends entirely on who you talk to.
Anyone looking for a knockout blow in the global warming debate in 2008 were sorely disappointed, The Australian reports.
The weather refused to co-operate, offering mixed messages from record cold temperatures across North America to heatwaves across Europe and the Middle East earlier in the year.
Even in Australia yesterday there were flurries of snow on the highest peaks of a shivering Tasmania, while the north of the country sweltered in above-average temperatures.
A cool 2008 may not fit in with doomsday scenarios of some of the more extreme alarmists. But nor, meteorologists point out, does it prove the contrary, that global warming is a myth.
In Australia this year, on the most recent figures, the average temperature was 22.18C.
Last year it was 22.48C. In 2006 it was 22.28C, and in 2005 22.99C.
Senior meteorologist with the National Meteorological Centre Rod Dickson said that based on data from January to November, 2008 might be the coolest this century but it was still Australia's 15th warmest year in the past 100 years.
"Since 1990, the Australian annual mean temperature has been warmer than the 1961-1990 average for all but two years, 2008 being one of those years," he said.
In Australia overall, 2008 on the most recent date, was 0.37C higher than for the 30-year average to 1990 of 21.81C.
Worldwide, 2008 was expected to be about 0.31C higher than the 30-year average to 1990, of 14C.
Melbourne, Hobart and Adelaide had well below average rainfall for the calendar year 2008, with just 449mm in Melbourne, compared with an average annual rainfall of 652mm.
Hobart received 407mm in 2008 compared with an average of 618mm. Sydney was also slightly below average at 1083 mm, compared with an average of 1213mm.
Brisbane, Perth and Darwin were all wetter than normal.
