In the spirit of New Year’s resolutions and of reflecting on the year and the decade behind us, I thought we could take a look back at highlights from 2009 and the 00’s (Is that what we’re calling them?)…

No, not Michael Jackson, swine flu, Susan Boyle or even that cute baby in New Zealand dancing to Beyonce (so hilarious!)…

…no, I’m talking about the climatic (not climactic) highlights of 2009 and its decade…

So, here’s the story:

Although the official report on how 2009 ranked in terms of temperature won’t be out until March, there are some good preliminary estimates out there.  According to the WMO (World Meteorological Organization), 2009 will most likely come in at…

#5 on the hottest-years-ever-recorded list

That’s the big take-home: #5.  Not the hottest year ever, but right on up there (1ºF warmer than the average).  Plus, it capped off the hottest decade on record as well.  The ’00s were 0.96ºF warmer than the 20th-century average, whereas the ’90s were 0.65ºF warmer.

Although coming in at #5 is a snazzier and easier-to-remember statistic, I think there’s more significance and real meat in the decadal numbers – this is the time-frame where we can really see actual climate change.  The 2000’s were hotter than the ’90s, which were, in turn, hotter than the ’80s.  Yes, the planet is warming up.

Here’s the updated Top 10 Hottest Years list, according to NOAA:

 

Global Top 10 Warm Years (Jan-Dec)	Anomaly °C	Anomaly °F
2005	0.62	1.11
1998	0.60	1.08
2003	0.58	1.04
2002	0.57	1.03
2009	0.56	1.01
2006	0.56	1.01
2007	0.55	0.99
2004	0.54	0.97
2001	0.52	0.94
2008	0.48	0.86
1997	0.48	0.86

And here’s how 2009 looked on the map compared to the average (1971-2000):

Mostly, pretty warm, yes, but you can tell that it was actually a cool year in the upper mid-west of the U.S.

NOAA says this was caused by a “recurring upper level trough” over this area, which my dear husband, Andy (he’s the weather guy, not me) explained meant that the jet stream was being channeled down from the north over this part of the country for much of the summer, bringing colder temperatures with it.

This is a good example of a weather pattern impacting annual temperature and is a great reason why it’s good to look at the global and long-term pictures and not just one place over one year.

Now that we’re entering 2010 with an El Niño going on, it will be interesting to see what new climatic excitement this year will bring us…