Sea Level TUVALU (lat. 8.0S, long. 178.0E) |
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Tuvalu (formerly Ellice Islands) is a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean with a highest point
about 5 metres above sea level. It is often claimed, by locals and
residents of distant countries, that these islands are suffering from rising sea level due to
global warming. This page presents graphs of sea level at Funafuti (or Fongafale), one of the major islands of the group. The data used here is the monthly values of the 1985-2001 Revised Local Reference data from the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (see here), where the Funafuti dataset has reference number 732/011. (The data prior to 1985 has gaps in it and has been rejected.) These graphs show that high seas in March are a normal occurrence and that the local sea level falls under the influence of strong El Nino conditions then rises when those conditions disappear. There is no evidence of permanently rising seas that can be matched to the supposed increase in average global temperature since 1976. |
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Fig 1 - Monthly sea level data |
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Fig 2 - Running 12-month averages. |
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Fig 3 - Sea-level across the calendar year(1) - see also below |
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Fig 4 - Sea-level across the calendar year (2) - see also above |
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SUMMARY |
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There is no indication from this data that Tuvalu is suffering from the sea level rising due to global warming.
The overwhelming conclusion is that the cessation of strong El Nino conditions will
simply cause the sea level to rise back to its normal position. |