BeHappy

OAA has had a chance to look back on all the weather and climate disasters of 2020. And like many other aspects of 2020, the numbers we're seeing aren't positive. 2020 officially broke the record for most $1 billion disasters. The 22 costliest events shattered numbers previously set by 16 separate billion-dollar disasters in 2011 and 2017. Note: the record here is for the number of events. In terms of cost, 2020's $95 billion price tag ranks as the fourth costliest. Hurricane Laura's damages came in at the highest price for 2020. In fact, seven of the 12 landfalling tropical systems caused at least $1 billion in damages, which is a record in itself. Western wildfires were also extremely active in 2020, consuming nearly 10.3 million acres. This includes about 4% of California's total acreage. To top it all off, 2020 ranked as the 5th warmest year on record for the contiguous U.S.. Here in the District, 2020 ranked as the 3rd warmest year, tying 2019 with an annual average temperature of 60.6 degrees. There are many other notable records and statistics to come out of 2020. A deeper analysis is available as part of NOAA's annual assessment here.

The Version 6.0 global average lower tropospheric temperature (LT) anomaly for December, 2020 was +0.27 deg. C, down substantially from the November, 2020 value of +0.53 deg. C.  For comparison, the CDAS global surface temperature anomaly for the last 30 days at Weatherbell.com was +0.31 deg. C. 2020 ended as the 2nd warmest year in the 42-year satellite tropospheric temperature record at +0.49 deg. C, behind the 2016 value of +0.53 deg. C. Cooling in December was largest over land, with 1-month drop of 0.60 deg. C, which is the 6th largest drop out of 504 months. This is likely the result of the La Nina now in progress. The linear warming trend since January, 1979 remains at +0.14 C/decade (+0.12 C/decade over the global-averaged oceans, and +0.18 C/decade over global-averaged land). Various regional LT departures from the 30-year (1981-2010) average for the last 24 months are: YEAR MO GLOBE NHEM. SHEM. TROPIC USA48 ARCTIC AUST 2019 01 +0.38 +0.35 +0.41 +0.36 +0.53 -0.14 +1.14 2019 02 +0.37 +0.46 +0.28 +0.43 -0.03 +1.05 +0.05 2019 03 +0.34 +0.44 +0.25 +0.41 -0.55 +0.97 +0.58 2019 04 +0.44 +0.38 +0.51 +0.54 +0.49 +0.93 +0.91 2019 05 +0.32 +0.29 +0.35 +0.39 -0.61 +0.99 +0.38 2019 06 +0.47 +0.42 +0.52 +0.64 -0.64 +0.91 +0.35 2019 07 +0.38 +0.32 +0.44 +0.45 +0.10 +0.34 +0.87 2019 08 +0.38 +0.38 +0.39 +0.42 +0.17 +0.44 +0.23 2019 09 +0.61 +0.64 +0.59 +0.60 +1.13 +0.75 +0.57 2019 10 +0.46 +0.64 +0.27 +0.30 -0.04 +1.00 +0.49 2019 11 +0.55 +0.56 +0.54 +0.55 +0.21 +0.56 +0.37 2019 12 +0.56 +0.61 +0.50 +0.58 +0.92 +0.66 +0.94 2020 01 +0.56 +0.60 +0.53 +0.61 +0.73 +0.12 +0.65 2020 02 +0.75 +0.96 +0.55 +0.76 +0.38 +0.02 +0.30 2020 03 +0.47 +0.61 +0.34 +0.63 +1.08 -0.72 +0.16 2020 04 +0.38 +0.43 +0.34 +0.45 -0.59 +1.03 +0.97 2020 05 +0.54 +0.60 +0.49 +0.66 +0.17 +1.15 -0.15 2020 06 +0.43 +0.45 +0.41 +0.46 +0.37 +0.80 +1.20 2020 07 +0.44 +0.45 +0.42 +0.46 +0.55 +0.39 +0.66 2020 08 +0.43 +0.47 +0.38 +0.59 +0.41 +0.47 +0.49 2020 09 +0.57 +0.58 +0.56 +0.46 +0.96 +0.48 +0.92 2020 10 +0.54 +0.71 +0.37 +0.37 +1.09 +1.23 +0.24 2020 11 +0.53 +0.67 +0.39 +0.29 +1.56 +1.38 +1.41 2020 12 +0.27 +0.22 +0.32 +0.05 +0.56 +0.59 +0.23 The full UAH Global Temperature Report, along with the LT global gridpoint anomaly image for December, 2020 should be available within the next few days here. The global and regional monthly anomalies for the various atmospheric layers we monitor should be available in the next few days at the following locations: Lower Troposphere: http://vortex.nsstc.uah.edu/data/uahnc..c_lt_6.0.txt Mid-Troposphere: http://vortex.nsstc.uah.edu/data/msu...cdc_mt_6.0.txt Tropopause: http://vortex.nsstc.uah.edu/data/msu...cdc_tp_6.0.txt Lower Stratosphere: http://vortex.nsstc.uah.edu/data/msu...cdc_ls_6.0.txt

Sunday will be mild again