date: Fri Sep 24 09:12:10 2004
from: Phil Jones <p.jones@uea.ac.uk>
subject: Re: ????
to: Tom Wigley <wigley@cgd.ucar.edu>

    Tom,
      In today, but off tomorrow to IPCC WGI. Here's the 3 figures I put together. The first
   is
    Nuuk (Godthaab), the 2cnd is a mix of stations near Jakobshavn/Upernavik and the 3rd
    is further south near Ivigtut. I can't cope with the Inuit names. None of these are
    written up yet. You can have a look for yourself.
      It seems to have cooled by roughly what they say, but this is only one location. Most
    places in Greenland do show some cooling. Most places in the Arctic show little warming
    in summer as temperatures are constrained to be near zero, when there is snow and ice
    around,
    Cheers
    Phil
   At 13:16 22/09/2004, you wrote:

     Phil,
     Wotcha think of the item below? I thought you were writing up something about
     Greenland temps?
     =====
     MORE EVIDENCE THAT GREENLAND HAS BEEN COOLING SIGNIFICANTLY
     CO2 Science Magazine, 22 September 2004
     [1]http://www.co2science.org/journal/v7/v7n38c1.htm
     Reference
     Taurisano, A., Boggild, C.E. and Karlsen, H.G.  2004.  A century of climate variability
     and climate gradients from coast to ice sheet in West Greenland.  Geografiska Annaler
     86A: 217-224.
     What was done
     In a preliminary step required to better understand the relationship of glacier dynamics
     to climate change in West Greenland, the authors "describe the temperature trends of the
     Nuuk fjord area during the last century."
     What was learned
     Taurisano et al.'s analyses of all pertinent regional data led them to conclude that "at
     all stations in the Nuuk fjord, both the annual mean and the average temperature of the
     three summer months (June, July and August) exhibit a pattern in agreement with the
     trends observed at other stations in south and west Greenland (Humlum 1999; Hanna and
     Cappelen, 2002b)."  As they describe it, the temperature data "show that a warming trend
     occurred in the Nuuk fjord during the first 50 years of the 1900s, followed by a cooling
     over the second part of the century, when the average annual temperatures decreased by
     approximately 1.5C." Coincident with this cooling trend there was also what they
     describe as "a remarkable increase in the number of snowfall days (+59 days)." What is
     more, they report that "not only did the cooling affect the winter months, as suggested
     by Hannna and Cappelen (2002a), but also the summer mean," noting that "the summer
     cooling is rather important information for glaciological studies, due to the
     ablation-temperature relations."  Last of all, they report there was no significant
     trend in annual precipitation.
     What it means
     In their concluding discussion, Taurisano et al. remark that the temperature data they
     studied "reveal a pattern which is common to most other stations in Greenland." Hence,
     we can be thankful that whatever the rest of the Northern Hemisphere may be doing, the
     part that holds the lion's share of the hemisphere's ice has been cooling for the past
     half-century, and at a very significant rate, making it ever more unlikely that its
     horde of frozen water will be released to the world's oceans to raise havoc with global
     sea level any time soon. In addition, because the annual number of snowfall days over
     much of Greenland has increased so dramatically over the same time period, it is
     possible that the presumably enhanced accumulation of snow on its huge ice sheet may be
     compensating for the melting of many of the world's mountain glaciers and keeping global
     sea level in check for this reason too. Last of all, Greenland's temperature trend of
     the past half-century has been just the opposite -- and strikingly so -- of that which
     is claimed for the Northern Hemisphere and the world by the IPCC and its
     climate-alarmist friends. Furthermore, as Greenland contributes significantly to the
     land area of the Arctic, it presents these folks with a double problem, as they have
     historically claimed that high northern latitudes should be the first to exhibit
     convincing evidence of CO2-induced global warming.
     Clearly, someone forgot to tell Greenland what it's supposed to be doing.
     References
     Hanna, E. and Cappelen, J.  2002a.  Recent climate of Southern Greenland.  Weather 57:
     320-328.
     Hanna, E. and Cappelen, J.  2002b.  Recent cooling in coastal southern Greenland and
     relation with the North Atlantic Oscillation.  Geophysical Research Letters 30: 1132.
     Humlum O.  1999.  Late-Holocene climate in central West Greenland: meteorological data
     and rock-glacier isotope evidence.  The Holocene 9: 581-594.
     Copyright  2004.  Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change

   Prof. Phil Jones
   Climatic Research Unit        Telephone +44 (0) 1603 592090
   School of Environmental Sciences    Fax +44 (0) 1603 507784
   University of East Anglia
   Norwich                          Email    p.jones@uea.ac.uk
   NR4 7TJ
   UK
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