NOAA is predicting El Nino will be back by mid 2014. If so it will likely be hottest year on record

[Quixote1818]

2013 was the hottest non El Nino year on record. http://www.climatecentral.org/news/toasty-november-vaults-2013-into-top-5-warmest-years-16844

Snip> According to NOAA, November's warmth catapulted the year-to-date to the 4th warmest year on record, up from the 7th warmest, which is where it stood as of the end of October. That puts 2013 on track to be the warmest year on record without an El Niño event, depending on where December temperatures rank.

Snip> The additional heat injected into the climate system from El Niño events accentuates the impacts of long-term global warming from manmade emissions of greenhouse gases and other causes. Although most climate outlooks show the continued absence of El Niño through the spring of 2014, should El Niño conditions develop at some point in the new year, it will increase the likelihood that 2014 will set a new global temperature record.

This graph shows how El Nino and La Nina greatly impact global temperatures:





See NOAA's weekly update for El Nino predictions here: http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/lanina/enso_evolution-status-fcsts-web.pdf

[roody]

1. If that means rain for California,

hooray.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. We need rain, yup

[joshcryer]

3. These cold fronts always predict a much hotter season.

And yeah 2014 is likely to be the next hottest year on record.

[CFLDem]

4. Which means another slow hurricane season

for 2014

But the possibility of a more active 2015