Warmest October on Record Turns Out to be Cold After All

Lockjaw — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 03:45:05 +0000

Time and again, extreme claims about global warming (aka global climate change) turn out to be lacking in one major aspect. That aspect is truth. Today’s story from the London Telegraph tells how the warmest October on record could be explained, considering the unusual cold, snow, and ice activity around the world during the month. It seems that NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, run by Gore apologist, and often inaccurate Dr. James Hansen, recorded October as the hottest on record.

This was startling. Across the world there were reports of unseasonal snow and plummeting temperatures last month, from the American Great Plains to China, and from the Alps to New Zealand. China’s official news agency reported that Tibet had suffered its “worst snowstorm ever”. In the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month, and ranked it as only the 70th-warmest October in 114 years.

But how could NASA have gotten it so wrong?

The reason for the freak figures was that scores of temperature records
from Russia and elsewhere were not based on October readings at all.
Figures from the previous month had simply been carried over and
repeated two months running.

The error was so glaring that when it was reported on the two blogs -
run by the US meteorologist Anthony Watts and Steve McIntyre, the
Canadian computer analyst who won fame for his expert debunking of the
notorious “hockey stick” graph – GISS began hastily revising its
figures. This only made the confusion worse because, to compensate for
the lowered temperatures in Russia, GISS claimed to have discovered a
new “hotspot” in the Arctic – in a month when satellite images were
showing Arctic sea-ice recovering so fast from its summer melt that
three weeks ago it was 30 per cent more extensive than at the same time
last year.

That has to be hard to explain.

Actually, not that hard to explain at all. May I suggest reading The
Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming, written by an actual
scientist who worked on studies about climate change for the United
Nations. Having just finished this book, I can say it’s an essential
read if this issue interests you, on either side.

Lockjaws Lair » climate change

Warmest October on Record Turns Out to be Cold After All