Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
How widespread is climate change? That depends on where and
when you look. The central and southern regions of the
United States had below-average temperatures in 2008, while
the West, Southwest, and Northeast were above average. However,
overall 2008 saw the coolest annual temperatures across the country
since 1997, according to NOAA's National Climatic Data Center.
13
The United States had some hot times in 2008, too, including
its eighth-driest September on record, according to Le Comte, an
expert in seasonal drought forecasting.
Globally, temperatures also are up. The year 2009 tied with
2006 as the fi fth-warmest year on record for the Earth, according
to a preliminary analysis by NOAA's National Climatic Data Center
in Asheville, North Carolina. (Records date back to 1880.) More
record or near-record numbers include the following:
The average temperature for the decade (2000-2009), 57.9°F,
was the warmest on record.
July 2010 was the warmest on record with a worldwide land
surface temperature, 1.85°F above the twentieth-century
average of 57.8°F.
January to July 2010, the year-to-date global combined land
and ocean surface temperature, 58.1°F, was the warmest
January-July period on record.
In China, August 2010 was the warmest on record, according
to the Chinese Meteorological Agency.
14
Australia copes.
The end of 2009 marked Australia's warmest
decade on record, according to Australia's Bureau of Meteorology.
Australians, however, seem to be learning to cope. It's the driest
continent on the planet, says Richard Atwater, chief executive offi -
cer and executive director of California's Inland Empire Utilities
Agency, a municipal water district in west San Bernardino County
that serves the Chino Basin. Atwater visited Australia in June 2008
to see how Australians successfully handle their long-term drought.
Brisbane, for example, is a gorgeous city with beautiful landscap-
ing despite a bigger water shortage than Las Vegas or Southern
California, says Atwater. But Australians landscape with much less
water than in the United States. They don't allow the use of potable
