U.S. vs. the Rest of the World: Climate change as measured from the 1975-1988 to 1988-1999 eras

Yesterday, we looked at the eras 1955-1975 compared to 1975-1988. Moving forward, now we look at 1975-1988 compared to 1988-1999.

In the United States, the warming trend increased quite a bit compared to the earlier era differences. 80% of weather stations that reported every season showed a warming trend and the average increase was 0.3° C compared to 0.09° C, and this increase takes place over a shorter period of time.

Here are the numbers of the U.S. vs, the rest of the world.

Total stations: 
U.S.A.: 3534
Rest of world 3046

Warming stations vs. cooling stations
U.S.A.: 80.4% warming, 19.6% cooling
Rest of world: 86.2% warming, 13.8% cooling

Average temperature change:
U.S.A.: 0.30° C
Rest of world: 0.47° C


These changes are much more extreme than similar comparisons between the earlier eras reported yesterday. Climate scientists consider about two degrees Celsius in a century to be catastrophic warming. Since this is a twenty five year time span, the United States rate stretched to over a century would not be alarming, but the rest of the world would be.


Tomorrow, the 1988-1999 era compared to 1999-2010 era, a time when some global warming skeptics say the earth began cooling.