North Atlantic Water Temperatures In 2004 Warmest Ever Recorded

[hatrack]

ST. JOHN'S, Nfld.—"Ocean temperatures in the North Atlantic hit highs last year, raising concerns about the effects of global warming on one of the most sensitive and productive ecosystems in the world.

Sea ice off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador was below normal for the tenth consecutive year and the water temperature outside St. John's Harbour was the highest on record in 2004, according to a report released yesterday by the federal fisheries department.

The ocean surface about seven kilometres off St. John's, which ranged from slightly less than 0C in February to 15C in August, averaged 1.1C above normal, the highest in the 59 years the department has kept records. Bottom temperatures were 0.9C higher than normal, and the highest since 1966. The average temperature near the bottom, calculated since 1946 at 176 metres, normally ranges between 0C and 0.5C.

"A one-degree temperature anomaly on the Grand Banks is pretty significant in the bottom areas, where temperatures only range a couple of degrees throughout the year," said Eugene Colbourne, an oceanographer with the fisheries department. Water temperatures were above normal right across the North Atlantic last year, from Newfoundland to Greenland, Iceland and Norway."

EDIT

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1120687813657&call_pageid=968332188774&col=968350116467&DPL=IvsNDS%2F7ChAX&tacodalogin=yes

[despairing optimist]

1. Dinosaurs, here we come

For them the end came via asteroid collision and global cooling. For us the end will come via asshole collusion and global warming.

[hatrack]

2. Nicely summed up!

Like your username, too - I feel that way most days. :toast:

[despairing optimist]

3. Thanks. I got the name from Rene Dubos, who was a famous microbiologist

and wrote a column in The American Scholar. It was very entertaining, witty, and well written. Since he's been gone awhile I didn't think he'd mind if I took his pen name.