“A COLD front is sweeping across Europe after gripping swathes of North America last month, but the deep freeze does not mean the threat of global warming has abated, caution scientists.” [Read more here.]
But at least one cartoonist in Belgium appears to be fed-up with the pronouncements from the warmaholics, inparticular Al Gore. [Via Anthony Watts.]
THE warmaholics are fond of using the phrase “official records going back to 1850”, but the simple facts are that prior to the 1970s, surface-based temperatures from a few indiscriminate, mostly backyard locations in Europe and the US are fatally corrupted and not in any sense a real record. Read more here.
I have previously written that in not so many years time weather station data will perhaps be collected more for fun, a sense of history and for site-specific information, than for serious regional and global climate statistics. In the future it will be data from satellites that is recognised as much more reliable for understanding regional and global temperature trends.
There are two internationally recognised temperature data sets based on satellite measurements known by their acronyms RSS (Remote Sensing Systems) and UAH (University of Alabama in Huntsville ). Both are based on information collected by NASA satellites.
Data from RSS for December 2008 was released yesterday – providing a complete data set for the last 29 years.
This data does not suggest dramatic global warming. Neither the warming of the late 20th century, nor the cooling since 1998, is of an unusual rate or magnitude.
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Chart from meteorologist Anthony Watts and reproduced here with permission.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/01/06/rss-is-out-for-december-down-slightly/
IT came out on Monday. But I have only just seen it – the climate summary for Australia for 2008.
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology could have concluded that last year was the third coolest this century, but instead opted for 14th warmest on record. Certainly, the available information compiled from thermometer readings suggests the last seven years have been particularly warm relative to the last 100; the Bureau calculating 0.41 degrees C above the standard 1961-1990 average.
[click on the charts for larger images]
The overall Australian mean rainfall total for 2008 was 466 mm, which is close to the long-term average of 472 mm. The south east of the country, including parts of the Murray Darling Basin, continued to experience below average rainfall.
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Annual Australian Climate Statement 2008 issued by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology on January 5, 2009. http://www.bom.gov.au/announcements/media_releases/climate/change/20090105.shtml
This is absured, but true: Australia’s use of coal and carbon emissions policies are guaranteeing the “destruction of much of the life on the planet”, a leading NASA scientist has written in a letter to Barack Obama. Read more here.
As I waited night after night for the electricity to return, candlelight kept teaching me about moving air’s talent for removing heat, hampering any effort to keep warmth “down here” by constantly sending it up and away. Read more here.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.
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