Global temperature anomaly for year 2008

Global surface temperature anomaly for December-08

Is the global climate changing?

Yes. But let’s look more closely at what that means. We can start with the time from 1856 to the present. We have a good record of global temperature for this recent period. Accurate temperature measurements were made at many locations around the world.

There have been some sharp year-to-year fluctuations. During some periods, such as the 1940s, there was a drop in global temperature, but the overall trend is up when we look at the past century and a half.

For more please visit this..
http://www.seed.slb.com/en/scictr/watch/climate_change/change.htm

MAX temperature up by 2 deg

Chennai:
During the past 5 days the max temperature was UP by 2 deg... this is a significant change. But the MIN temperature is almost the same at 20/21 degrees... this has remained the same for the past 20 days.
We are almost at the end of short chennai Winter.
This winter was mild and even one can say it's bit colder than the previous year.
Now the max temperature is hovering around 31.8°C
This will increase by another 1 deg after 15-Feb... and will rise to 34 deg around 10-Mar-09.
After that every Chennai person will know, what and how it'll be...:)

Today morning we had some cloud formations over the east-south-east.
Other than this, there will not be any more significant changes in weather for next 3 days.

NOW in INDIA we have 3 online "Personal weather stations"
The new entry is from "Thenpattinam, Tamilnadu".
We are trying to find out WHO has hosted it..??
Thenpattinam weather can be accessed thru this LINK Thenpattinam weather
Others can be found here... Personal Weather Stations in INDIA

Very old maps of India and Chennai

South India 1907

India 1893

Madras 1893

Madras Old


Taken from various websites..

"Chennai Fog" - Times of India

CHENNAI: People driving down GST Road southwards were in for a surprise on Wednesday morning. The time was 8.10 am and the sun was bright and
shining till Tambaram. Suddenly, the road beyond Tambaram emerged as a stretch enveloped by thick fog. The lush greenery on the sides of the road and the fog provided the experience of driving along a hill station path.
It was more than an hour and a half after sunrise, but there was too little sunlight, cutting the visibility to about 50 metres. Those who had fog lamps turned the on, the others just slowed down.
"I take the road almost every day, but have not witnessed such a condition even in the earlier hours of the day. Today, even at 8.30 am I could hardly see the surroundings. The feeling is, however, heavenly, as I drove from the city into the suburbs," said Niranjan Kumar, a businessman.
Many two-wheeler riders first mistook it for pollution-induced smog. However, they soon realised that it was only fog when they felt the chilly wind on their faces as they drove through. Many motorists were seen parking their vehicles in front of the lake near SRM university to capture a picture of the mist over the lake on their mobile phones.
The met office explained the phenomenon as a combination of factors. "When the sky is clear in the night and the wind speed is slow, there can be radiation loss, leading to foggy conditions. It is a natural phenomenon. The sky over the city was partly cloudy and that was the reason there was no fog in the city. When the upper atmosphere is stable, the fog takes a longer time to clear," regional meteorological centre director S R Ramanan said.
Chennaiites had a very pleasant winter with the lowest temperature going down to around 18.3 degrees Celsius. According to the met office, weather will remain stable for a few days, with pleasant morning hours and hot afternoon hours.
"The temperature will start going up gradually till the summer arrives after March. However, the night and morning hours will remain cool for few more weeks," a meteorological department official said.

Getting warm & humid

Recent satellite images showed lot of cloud activity over southern bay and near 5th parallel. Even South-south-tamilnadu had some share of scattered mild showers.
Chennai:
we are experiencing near 30 deg temperatures and bit more humid than previous weeks.
Certainly for the past 4 days the minimum temperature was not at all low.
Today, morning it was fully cloudy and warm.
Now(29-Jan-09, 11:35AM) the humidity is on the higher side 65% and temperature is rising steady at 28.8°C.

Are we nearing the end of winter season or something else..??
We might have a localized shower or two in next 72 hrs.
GFS models suggest nothing and will remain so.
MJO forecast suggests still we are in a mild wet phase... and will continue till 10-Feb-09.
Here is the long range precipitation forecast till June-2009.... It suggests a more than normal rainfall for Western Peninsular India.

Valcanoe - "Chaiten" .... Fuming Anger!

A classic shot of 2 cyclones

A classic shot of 2 cyclones
one to north-east of Madagaskar "TC - ERIC"
and other one approaching Madagaskar from South-west "TC - FANELE"

Mild winter day & night

We(Chennai) are experiencing a mild winter day & night from 10-Jan-09 to till date.
From 15-Jan-09 to 21-Jan-09 there was some cloud activity over the South-south-bay near the 5th parallel...gradually it became a huge cloud mass and moved south instead of moving north-west.
Now it's a potential cyclone just south of Equator.
Again the Bay is clear and there are some cloud formations over South-western Arabian sea.
Going thru all parameters, next 5 days will be with bit warm days and mild nights.
The low temperature will be around 21 deg.

A sudden change in MJO forecast says,
that we are currently in a wet phase and will continue till 7-Feb-09.
Previously it was predicting a wet phase from 2-Feb-09 to 14-Feb-09.