Category Archives: Weather!

Dial “M” for mangled – Wikipedia and Environment Canada caught with temperature data errors.

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“Dial “M” for mangled – Wikipedia and Environment Canada caught with temperature data errors.” Anthony Watts finds another report of cherry-picked errors in raw airport temperature data again, this time by “Ecotretas” about the Canadian High Arctic community of Eureka, Nunavut. Darn those human beings and their inconsistent data entry! Or those malfunctioning gadgets! Or maybe those trucks running right beside the thermometer! Or something.

These kinds of data quality errors are corrected before being used in climate modeling. Hence irrelevant to the Global Warming debate. Anthony almost figures it out here (italics mine):

[Here is where it really gets strange, I’ve added two screencaps from Environment Canada, on for the monthly data, another for the daily data from July 14th, 2009. They don’t match! The 20.9C value never appears in the July 14th hourly data. Click images below to enlarge, EC’s July 2009 Monthly report on the left, July 14th, 2009 daily/hourly data on the right. Perhaps EC corrected the error in the daily/hourly data, but missed the monthly?  – Anthony]

Also, as a geologist and a Canadian, I always laugh when people like Anthony get confused by map projections. According to him the Eureka airport data is “responsible for the very big stripe on the very top of Canada.” Um, no. It looks that way because the Earth is being represented using the cylindrical Mercator projection method, which distorts (magnifies) polar regions.

Earth gives us an Earth Day present: Arctic sea ice is highest for this date in 9 years

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“Earth gives us an Earth Day present: Arctic sea ice is highest for this date in 9 years“. An “Earth Day” post from Anthony Watts. Apparently the planet loves us polluting it, so it’s laid on some extra Arctic sea ice as a token of its affection (on one interpretation anyway). Well actually the Arctic sea ice is still less than “normal”, but it’s something right?

Weather is not climate Anthony, this sea ice is residual from the unusual Arctic cold snap in March. Also half-wit humor is not science, although it is entertaining to watch the attempt.

Earth Day must be quite galling for Anthony and his buddies, they have a deep resentment of environmental activism. Don’t tell them what to do!

By the way, did you know that Earth Day is also Lenin’s birthday? Anthony’s readers all do…

New weekly feature: WUWT Sea Ice News

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“New weekly feature: WUWT Sea Ice News“. Anthony Watts give obsessive denialists a weekly destination for wild statements about current sea ice extents. There’s nothing Anthony likes better than to talk about the weather when the topic at hand is actually climate.

In the opening installment, Steven Goddard starts with juvenile remarks about Al Gore and then throws up the usual spray of Arctic sea ice maps. It’s almost “average”! No talk about sea ice volume of course because that’s not a helpful statistic.

More Wisdom via Solomon: Global Warming Has Passed The Point Of No Return

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“More Wisdom via Solomon: Global Warming Has Passed The Point Of No Return“. Steven Goddard lists some bad things that weren’t caused by Global Warming, and gives us a juvenile photoshopped image of Susan Solomon from the NOAA.

Why? Because he wants to counter the NOAA’s statement that the rising CO2 levels will not quickly return to pre-industrial levels even if we act decisively now, and that there may be centuries of adjustment ahead.

Next time, try some science.

Response to Dr. Meier’s answer #9 – coin flips in the context of climate modeling

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“Response to Dr. Meier’s answer #9 – coin flips in the context of climate modeling“. Steven Goddard finds fault with Dr. Walt Meier’s example of coin flipping as an analogy for long-term prediction.

We know that weather models are very accurate for about three days, and then quickly break down due to chaos. There is little reason to believe that climate models will do any better through successive iterations.

His proof? Some seasonal weather predictions that weren’t as accurate as he thinks they should be. Nice try. Steven still feels smugly comfortable concluding thus:

I don’t see much theoretical or empirical evidence that climate models produce meaningful information about the climate in 100 years.

Maybe Steven should open his eyes a bit more. Skeptical Science talks about the success of climate models a bit here.

Global Warming and “The Early Spring” Part II

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Global Warming and “The Early Spring” Part II. Steven Goddard has scurried around collecting quotes about whether Spring in England is early or late. Because if Spring in England is late this year, then there’s no way that Global Warming could be true! Anthony Watts endorses this drivel.

Snow! In England! Evidence from: BBC News

Repeat after me: “weather is not climate.“

The great imaginary ice barrier

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“The great imaginary ice barrier“. Ooh, Anthony Watts “victory” dance about increasing Arctic sea ice extent was embarrassingly short-lived. Two days. The sea ice increase, basically a product of weather in the Bering Sea, has declined a bit rather than ‘bursting through’ the average trend and Anthony has been forced to acknowledge it.

Since these fluctuations are really a reflection of local weather this could turn around again and permit Anthony to resume his dance. But for now, he must be embarrassed.

NSIDC April 3rd 2010 Arctic Sea Ice Extent. It stopped rising!

It must suck to have to juggle a succession of overblown pronouncements about how particular weather events disprove Global Warming. Maybe he’s testing out an exit strategy.  When Anthony says “Nature is just laughing at all of us” he means, of course, at himself.

Arctic Sea Ice Extent Update: still growing

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“Arctic Sea Ice Extent Update: still growing“. In spite of hearing explanations of why the Arctic sea ice extent is currently higher that trend (it’s called “weather”, the increase is entirely due to localized conditions in the Bering Sea), Anthony Watts reports after a mere two days that it’s still high-ish and that anything is possible.

Thanks Anthony.

If Global Warming Kills Us, Blame the Weatherman?

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“If Global Warming Kills Us, Blame the Weatherman?” Anthony Watts tries to spin a copy-and-pasted BNET article about George Mason University’s recent study of TV Weathercasters with his own newly-minted ‘maxim’: “Climate doesn’t kill people, weather does.”

Just six words, but he still manages to get it wrong. I’d like to hear Anthony actually explain that one.

Science at work?

The gist of the article is that TV Weathercasters are the most visible and (sadly) trusted “scientific” information source for most Americans, but they are poorly qualified and predisposed to resist evidence of Global Warming. 27% of TV Weathercasters actually think Global Warming is “a scam”! The credentials and actions of dear Anthony Watts make him a poster boy for this assessment…

The UK Met Office appears to have ‘disappeared’ their winter forecast

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“The UK Met Office appears to have ‘disappeared’ their winter forecast“. Steven Goddard returns with more irrelevant weather accusations. The UK Met Office seems to have a different winter forecast on their website than they did last summer! Ooh, this is nasty. And their staff got a raise this year!

Check this out from the Met Office website (italics mine). Totally different from “winter temperatures are likely to be near or above average over much of Europe including the UK”!

For the rest of winter, over northern Europe including the UK, the chance of colder conditions is now 45%

Repeat after me: the science of climate prediction is not dependent on the accuracy of weather forecasts.