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A glance at temperature records …

September 30th, 2010 · 1 Comment

Upfront. A single day, in a single nation doesn’t prove (or disprove) climate change science / The Theory of Global Warming. Got it.

However, ….

29 September 2010, United States of America, temperature records

Total Number of Records for September 29, 2010 (out of 5,341 stations with at least 30 years of data)

Highest Max Temperature:  139 new record + 54 tied with existing record = Total: 193

Lowest Max Temperature: New: 1 + Tied: 0 = Total: 1

Highest Minimum Temperature: New: 40 + Tied: 22 = Total: 62

Lowest Minimum Temperature: New: 1 + Tied: 2 = Total: 3

Across the nation, 255 records legitimately associated with warming and 4 associated with cooling. Again, to be clear, one day in one country proves nothing. But we are seeing many days like this. To be clear, neither does a month or a specific year in one town, country, or region.  Nor does the fact that, globally, 2010 is on track to be the hottest (or tied for hottest) year in recorded weather history with nation-after-nation breaking their all-time high temperature records.

Yet … what we are seeing, globally, is more high records set year-to-year (more importantly, decade-to-decade) and fewer low records.

the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) released information about a study that provides quite conclusive evidence (proof, could we say?) that such cherry-picking about cold weather conditions is absolutely a deceptive practice that distorts what is actually being seen and what is likely to be seen NCAR scientists analyzed record high temperature and record low temperature data for the United States for the past60 years (using solely weather stations that have been active for the entire period).  If the United States climate wasn’t changing in one direction, over time, writ large we should expect two things:

  1. A rough balance, between highs and lows, with perhaps some ‘see-sawing’ with colder and warmer periods.
  2. A (slow?) decline in total records as it should, with more years of data, become harder to set either record highs or lows.

Putting aside the fact of human causality, only the most ignorant fool or biased ideologue would argue that the planet is not warming.


Tags: climate change

1 response so far ↓

  • 1 March heat wave to cause panic buying? // Mar 23, 2012 at 12:22 pm

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