There has been no net warming in the Rocky Mountains in the last 500 years.
The southern Rocky Mountains were as warm or warmer than recent decades during the 1600s and 1700s and they have been cooling since the 1950s (Berkelhammer and Stott, 2012, Heeter et al., 2020).
Image Source: Berkelhammer and Stott, 2012
Image Source: Heeter et al., 2020
The northern Rocky Mountains were also as-warm or warmer during the 1600s and 1700s with no unusual recent warming (Kipfmueller, 2008).
Image Source: Kipfmueller, 2008
The glaciers in Glacier National Park (northern Rockies) experienced substantially higher melt rates in the 1920s to 1940s, only to return to Little Ice Age melt rates in the following decades (Pederson et al., 2004).
Image Source: Pederson et al., 2004
The press release for a new study by the very same authors of last year’s reconstruction of southern Rocky temperatures screams that the northern Rockies are now “hotter than ever.” However, the temperature record from the study itself shows ~2°C cooling from 1940-1970 and a more sustained warm temperatures during Medieval times and especially the late 1500s to early 1600s.
Thank-you Kenneth for another examination of some honest research that relies on measurement and rational analysis. A breath of fresh air, that shows that this location/region has not seen any let alone significant amounts of ‘global warming’.
It is remarkable how little the temperatures (and climate) have varied over the Southern Rocky Mountains and the Northern Rocky Mountains. These two area have different climates but overall the temperatures shown are constrained within about a ±1.75°C envelope — not much in the way variations.
For me the bottom line is climate like weather is particular to the location. Changes in climate happen to areas, to regions, at locations of the world.
The effects of climate changes are NOT global!
Atmospheric CO2 does not drive the climate.
Humans do not control atmosphere CO2 levels!
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