St Louis is forecast to have its first subzero (deg F) temperature in 10 years, and here in Columbia we are forecast for -2 deg Friday morning (while I will be in Long Beach working). That is weather. But, the globe may have had its coolest year in about 10 years in 2008, and it looks like 2007 was not too warm globally either. But, these are the 2 years with the least arctic ice cover in September since satellite coverage. Climate models have long predicted amplified warming in the Arctic. Because of something my sister emailed me, and because of an article by a national columnist (an economist, Walter Williams), titled "Global warming is a myth", I dove into this a little bit again. Williams source was "The U.S. senate Minority report: "more than 650 International Scientists dissent over man-made global warming claims: Scientists continue to debunk consensus in 2008."
I found this report on the web and it seems to be driven by sentaor Imhofe from Oklahoma, the one who invited a novelist to testify on climate change before the senate.

I looked into a couple of science articles suggesting that natural cycles may compensate for warming for about the next decade, but hvae not read these yet.

The link is to temperatures for the last century for St Louis and for Columbia. The running mean for St Louis shows warming (with 2008 being cool), Columbia does not. St Louis may be affected by urban heat island, which should be corrected for (would be less heating): Columbia airport is surrounded by fields and forests (if measured at airport).

I've been curious about earth has been warming last few years, partly because of posts on this page (Dennis?). It may not be. But, I'll post later a graph that put that in context.

More coming if I get a chance.
Chris

• Missouri temps