Understanding the Current Cold

This is an update about the Arctic Oscillation discussed on Dec 18, 2010. The latest image from NASA Earth Observatory even more dramatically highlights the temperature anomalies of the northern hemisphere, with the arctic being up to 18 degrees warmer than the past historical average (red), and much of the US being up to 18 degrees colder (blue). The linked article describes the mechanism, but as best I read it, does not explain the cause.

And if that image is not amazing enough, check out the amazing agreement between four different sources of global mean temperature for the past century. This NASA link also explains how temperatures for areas without weather stations are arrived at through interpolation.

Note: Setting adjustments have been made to the "Comments" option on this blog to make commenting easier. Bill