Posted on December 20, 2017 by Seth Jaffe
The Washington Post reported last week that Utqiagvik, Alaska (formerly known as Barrow), has gotten so warm, so fast, that NOAA’s computers can’t even believe it. The data for Utqiagvik (that’s hard to type!) were so high that the computers determined it must be anomalous and pulled all of the data from Utqiagvik from the NOAA monthly climate report. Only when scientists realized that Utqiagvik was completely missing from the report did they notice what had happened.
How hot does it have to get to get bounced by the computer? How about average October temperatures 7.8 degrees warmer than in 2000? Average November temperatures 6.9 degrees warmer than in 2000? Likely culprit? Melting sea ice means that less sunlight is reflected. That’s one nasty negative feedback loop.
In the meantime, as I noted in October, Alaska Governor Bill Walker has concluded that Alaska needs more oil drilling (can you say “Open ANWR” three times fast?) in order to pay for climate change mitigation. It’s apparent that Governor Walker has not read Faust.
Governor Walker, this one’s for you.
Tags: Adaptation, Energy Policy, Climate Response, Utqiagvik, Barrow, North Slope, GHG