2014 Was #1

A bit of a lag as folks crunch and verify numbers, but Japan's Meteorological Agency has 2014 as the warmest. I was never very impressed with the "pause" arguments. Getting worked up about steep increases or declines after large peaks looses site of the long term trend line. We do not need drama to plot out a steady trend line and one year ought not to make much difference.

But people do like extremes and 2014 looks like it is going down as Number 1. From a public dialog perhaps it will put to rest the spin that it has been cooling since 1998. I do suspect there will be new fascinating creative spin on what 2014's record means from deniers. And the anti alarmists will get upset with those that will blame every weather event on the new global year record. Regardless, the trend of warming is continuing towards more consequences that await.

And do not forget that much of the global heat budget goes into the oceans (greater than 90% http://www.climatechange2013.org/images/report/WG1AR5_Chapter03_FINAL.pdf). Good thing Earth has all that water or we would be getting toasty fast. Of coarse a fair bit of CO2 goes into the oceans as well - and yes, calling it acidification is OK; although that might not fully capture carbonate content consequences ocean-co2-yes-it-is-alarming.