Earth's oceans set record temperatures

WASHINGTON – Steve Kramer spent an hour and a half swimming in the ocean Sunday — in Maine. The water temperature was 72 degrees — more like Ocean City, Md., this time of year. And Ocean City's water temp hit 88 degrees this week, toasty even by Miami Beach standards.
Kramer, 26, who lives in the seaside town of Scarborough, said it was the first time he's ever swam so long in Maine's coastal waters. "Usually, you're in five minutes and you're out," he said.
It's not just the ocean off the Northeast coast that is super-warm this summer.
July was the hottest the world's oceans have been in almost 130 years of record-keeping.


In hot water: World sets ocean temperature record - Yahoo! News

 

I'll have to checkout your post with respect to the correlation between El Nino and the oceanic temperatures and this time of the year.
Additonal FYI info: I was watching a show on the History Channel two nights ago that talked about how droughts (from either global warming or El Nino) would affect America. Here's what would happen if the droughts are cumulative: The Great Plains farming region of the United States would NOT have enough water to grow enough crops to feed the American population. We would have to import food (IF the other countries would even part with their own, limited food). Solution: Build desalination plants next to the oceans TODAY so that we have them as a backup if we ever need them. After watching the show, I ended up doing about three hours of research on the computer on this subject. VERY INTERESTING! Go to your local water district's website - where does your water come from?

(The History Channel show also revealed that from the massive 1930s drought, the U.S. Department of Agriculture discovered that the Great Plains farmers get most of their water from a giant water shed underneath the Great Plains. During the 1950s, it was discovered that this water shed was becoming depleted (danger!), so they improved technology to more efficiently water crops. From the 1950s through 2009, the water level in the water shed has remained constant (which is below the level of what it was before the 1930s). If weather patterns remain unchanged, we will be just fine. But if we have a drought, the level of water in the water shed will become lower and lower, and eventually become dangerously low. If it runs out...U.S. farm crop output will be approximately HALVED!
(another reason we need to build desalination plants along the ocean TODAY so that we have them in case we ever need them)

I can't believe there are some people that still don't believe humans are contributing to global warming. It is a fact that we have released billions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere from fossil fuels from the Carboniferous time period in earth's history. It is a fact that laboratory experiments at universities and at NASA have proven that CO2 gas creates a greenhouse effect. It is also a fact that from 1930 until today, more than 50% of the glacier volume at Glacier National Park has melted (it is predicted that by 2030, 100% of Glacier National Park's glaciers will be gone). It is a fact that the geological record reveals that changes in earth's climate, over it's 4.5 billion year history, have taken thousands of years, and NEVER only a few decades!
(If you want to see a window into Earth's past ice ages that have shaped rock formations all around the world, you better make a trip to Glacier National Park while the glaciers still exist).

The best thing that you could EVER do for your education is to buy the History Channel DVD called "How The Earth Was Made." It is INCREDIBLE!!!!!! They have EVIDENCE for everything, and EVIDENCE that the earth is 4.5 Billion years old. It's absolutely fascinating.

 

Miscommunication on my part, perhaps. I knew you were being sarcastic. I was agreeing with you. I should have started my post with "I agree with you, and...."

:welcome:

 

Shawn, your post is right here. Is this the post you are talking about?
http://priuschat.com/forums/environ...been-cool-summer-fo-far-you-8.html#post935598

What I'm wondering is how the ocean temperatures changed throughout the year during the 1998 el nino, and how 2009 temperatures compare to that. If you don't have that info, I can research it on my own. Maybe I will find it, or maybe it doesn't exist.