Oh yeah… the ocean ate my global warming.
Four major independent datasets show 2012 was among the 10 warmest years on record, ranking either 8th or 9th, depending upon the dataset used. The United States and Argentina had their warmest year on record.
Bob – I don’t think that a couple of days of a warm summer are a large enough sample size. I also think the global change of 0.8 C is easily masked by local variations.
Steve – you are right in that the ocean can act as a big sink. The mixing time from more shallow ocean to deep ocean is about 1000 years (calculated by tracers like tritium) so that shows what sort of a time scale we’re looking at here for any sort of “equilibrium” to be reached!
I remember a couple of days last summer that were too hot to go fishing so it must be true.