Globally, 2011 was the 11th warmest year since records began in 1880, says Adnan Akyuz, North Dakota’s state climatologist and assistant professor of climatology in North Dakota State University’s Soil Science Department.

The annual global combined land and ocean surface temperature was 0.92 degree above the long-term average of 57 degrees. This marks the 35th consecutive year (since 1976) that the annual global temperature was above the 20th century average.

The annual average temperature for the contiguous U.S. in 2011 was 53.8 degrees, which was 1 degree above the long-term average and making it the 23rd warmest year on record.

“While the annual average temperature through the contiguous U.S. has increased by 0.12 degree per decade since 1880, it has increased 0.26 degree per decade in North Dakota during the same period, which is the largest increase in the contiguous U.S.,” Akyuz says.

Akyuz reviews climate change globally and regionally and looks at the agricultural implications to the northern Plains.

Akyuz will host a seminar on climate change on March 7 from noon to 12:50 p.m. The seminar will be held in Sudro Hall, room 21, which is on the NDSU campus.

The seminar will be interactive to encourage real-time audience participation using a student response system. The real-time response will give participants the opportunity to discuss the perceptions the public has about climate change.

Directions to Sudro Hall can be found at http://www.ndsu.edu/images/buildings/maps/map.sudrohall.pdf.

NDSU Agriculture Communication - Feb. 23, 2012