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Forecasting Change: Decades of rising temperatures

Orlando trending warmer

The sun shines at Memorial Park in Houston in this image taken in 2020. (KPRC/File)

In this weeks Forecasting Change I want to take a look at heat. So many times in discussing the changing climate some people want to argue that “the temps fluctuate ... they change from year to year ... we aren’t REALLY getting warmer.”

I am here to tell you, that is NOT true. We are getting warmer and have been for decades.

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It is true that we have not been on a direct rocket ride straight up, but we have been getting warmer. I like to compare it to a rising stock market ticker. It has been going up, but in a stair step fashion. It goes up, drops a bit, goes up more, back one step, then up five steps.

Check out the “Decades Of Warming” graphic below for Orlando.

The graphs show each decade and the warming trend going up and then down a little. The overall trend despite the ups and downs is hotter. (Climate Central)

And its not just in Orlando that the warmth has been growing. This graphic is a view of the same time span for the U.S. You can see the warm up has been coming for decades.

The warming trend seen here from the 1900s through today show periods of ups and downs, but overall trend pattern is hotter. (Climate Central)

And for those of you who love history think back to the 1930s and 40s. Remember the Dust Bowl? That was a time in history when the U.S. experienced a warm up while the rest of the globe did not. Today, the warmth is global. It is not just in the U.S. that it is on the rise. Check out the graphic below.

Warming trend seen globally (Climate Central)

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