It's Getting Hot in Here

I wonder what the climate change deniers have to say about this. Then again, to keep my blood pressure down I'd rather not know.

From NASA...

This color-coded map shows global surface temperature anomalies for May 2010 compared to average temperatures for the same time of year from 1951 to 1980. Above-normal temperatures appear in shades of red, and below-normal temperatures appear in shades of blue.

Especially warm temperatures—close to 9 degrees Fahrenheit above average—occur over most of the Arctic, including the northernmost reaches of North America, northwestern Greenland, and most of the northern coast of Eurasia.

“Ongoing temperature anomalies like these are strong evidence of the Arctic amplification of global climate change,” says Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center. The Arctic environment is very vulnerable to warming because of feedbacks that amplify the initial change. Sea ice retreat and snow melt reduce Earth’s albedo, which can lead to increased warmth and further melting. Scambos explains that, although the Northern Hemisphere experienced significant snowfall in early 2010, spring melt was rapid, exposing land surfaces to sunlight sooner than usual.

“Where a lot of the big economies are—the United States, Western Europe, Japan—it’s been cool, but the world as a whole is quite warm,” Scambos observes. “The Sahel, the Indus Valley, and China didn’t see a cool spring the way other areas did.”

Somehow, I successfully resisted the temptation to post a Nelly video but here's the link if need be.