I was surprised to learn today, that one of the most prominent newspapers in the USA, the Orange County Register in the Los Angeles area, carried an editorial of which my work was the subject. It is quite a turnaround from the brush off I got last year by their Science Dude blogger who wrote a story on the warming of Santa Ana, CA.
By the way here is what the official NOAA weather station for Santa Ana looks like, note the a/c heat exchanger exhausts:
Santa Ana Station looking North. Click for a larger image
The editorial about my work was published in the OC Register on Monday, June 1st. I’ve reposted it below.
Editorial: Cooling down with global-warming data
U.S. and world temperature records are compromised by monitoring station errors.
If fighting global warming may cost the economy $9.6 trillion and more than 1 million lost jobs by 2035, as the Heritage Foundation forecasts, it’d be a good idea to be sure there’s a sound basis before making such a massive sacrifice.
We’ve noted before that climate change is occurring as it always has, but the claim that man-made greenhouse gases will cause catastrophic temperature increases is based on questionable science and projections. Man’s contribution to greenhouse gases is minuscule. There are some theories but no convincing proof that increased emissions cause increased temperature.
Now another serious doubt has been raised concerning how much of the 1-degree centigrade increase over the past century allegedly caused by escalating emissions has even occurred.
“We can’t know for sure if global warming is a problem if we can’t trust the data,” said Anthony Watts, veteran broadcast meteorologist, who for three years organized an extensive review of official ground temperature monitoring stations, in conjunction with Dr. Roger Pielke Sr., senior research scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences and professor emeritus of the Department of Atmospheric Science at the University of Colorado.
The study, recently published by the free-market Heartland Institute, inspected 860 of the 1,221 U.S. ground stations that gauge temperature changes. The findings were alarming.
They found 89 percent of stations “fail to meet the National Weather Service’s own siting requirements” that say stations must be located at least 100 feet from artificial heat sources.
“We found stations located next to the exhaust fans of air conditioning units, surrounded by asphalt parking lots and roads, on blistering hot rooftops and near sidewalks and buildings that absorb and radiate heat,” Mr. Watts reported.
Many stations also had added more sensitive measuring devices, heat-generating radio transmission devices and even latex paint to replace original whitewash, resulting in greater heat retention and reflection.
At one location, Mr. Watts said when he “stood next to the temperature sensor, I could feel warm exhaust air from the nearby cell phone tower equipment sheds blowing past me! I realized this official thermometer was recording the temperature of a hot zone . . . and other biasing influences including buildings, air conditioner vents and masonry.”
These influences produce readings higher than actual ambient temperatures, Mr. Watts said. Moreover, the research revealed “major gaps in the data record that were filled in with data from nearby sites, a practice that propagates and compounds errors.”
These inflated, error-prone, tinkered-with temperature recordings are one of several measurements cited by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as evidence man-made global warming is a threat. But the Heartland study concluded, “The U.S. temperature record is unreliable. And since the U.S. record is thought to be ‘the best in the world,’ it follows that the global database is likely similarly compromised and unreliable.”
Before devastating the economy to fix a problem that may not exist, we ought to get the numbers right.
Congrats, Anthony! Always good to get the word out!
Yes, good to see that all of that hard work is starting to be appreciated.
“Before devastating the economy to fix a problem that may not exist, we ought to get the numbers right.”…. Wonderful how the thought of approaching tax hikes clarifies the mind.
Well done. Perhaps the tide is turning.
Congratulations, Anthony! Thank you for your efforts in bringing the problem of heat bias to the forefront. I hope more media outlets bring your important work to the attention of the public and policy makers.
I would like to add my congratulations and my continuing appreciation for this site and all the work you’ve done, and the honesty and principle with which you handled yourself and matters here. Unfortunately, given some of the craziness chronicled over at Climate Depot, I have to add my hope that revenues generated by the Google ads provides enough additional income to pay for a bodyguard. It would appear that incessant repetition of AGW propaganda is finally succeeding in driving people insane. Dissent from AGW orthodoxy has apparently now become a capital crime to some of it’s more enthusiastic supporters. God help us.
wow, hittin the big time! Well-deserved, indeed, Anthony.
OT, sorry, but after our dust-up/brawl at Climate Progress, I’d feel remiss if I didn’t mention this.
WUWTers were locked out of the thread at the end. Dohgaza (who stops in here, I believe) takes 9 of the last 11 comments. It’s quite bizarre. Like he’s doing the Ali shuffle and knocking down our phantom comments as if they were inflatable pop-ups or something. I don’t know what his relationship to proprietor Joe Romm is, but it was like he was the designated clean-up guy. Really spooky.
I doubt if Anthony will accept Gail’s invitation to her Climate Progress picnic, but if he does he should make sure he’s not on the menu:
“Anthony, do you believe in the death penalty?
I don’t, for many reasons (unfairly applied, mistakes can be made).
But if I did, (do you?) should it be applicable to people who deliberately, mendaciously, foster disastrous climate change by their denialist rhetoric that adds to the political logjam to address it?
I don’t know! But I do, have plenty of space for the ClimateProgressPicnic!”
This is the bookend to the comment early in the thread saying future generations would ” strangle (deniers) in their beds”.
Don’t mean this to distract from Anthony’s moment of well-deserved honor/glory, and sorry Anthony you probably didn’t want to see her quote ever again, but there is something really creepy in the air. NBC’s Tonight, Brian Williams did this gushing like 2-hour White House special where he sounded like a lovelorn schoolgirl. Even Jon Stewart was laughing at it.
Am I crazy, or are we heading towards a very bad place? Please tell me I’m crazy.
REPLY: Unfortunately, you are quite sane. – Anthony
Will the Guardian ever do a write up on monitoring stations?
Congratulations Anthony. The word is getting out.
We’re living in bad times, but it’s nice to know that there are so many good people here to help sort things out.
Thanks,
Mike
The wind is starting to turn around and people are waking up to reality. Now, if they could only connect the dots and realise how Al Gore is the master of the Big Lie, that will be a major achievement, but your achievement Anthony, is a major one.
Not related but, the blip on the AMSR-E Sea Ice Extent happened again a few days ago (as it has every year at the same date), is there any meaning to this?
REPLY: it is a seasonal data adjustment to account for meltwater which appears on the surface of the ice about this time, causing an offset to make it look like there is more open water than there actually is. – Anthony
Let’s hope more newspapers pick up on the OC Register’s op ed piece. The tide could be turning at last!!
So here it is.
This is today’s Left meets the Chicago Way (see Rahm Emanuel).
Intimidation is the name of the game. I’ll bet dollars to donuts this is not a an isolated coincidence.
From now until the Climate Bill comes to a vote, this is going to be the order of the day. (No one will be happier than me if I’m wrong.)
No reflection on you, Anthony, but if I were you I’d double- and triple-check to make sure all my tax returns are squeaky-clean.
(OK, Neill, take off the tin-foil hat…………..slowly.)
Great work, Anthony. The fact that they noticed your work and made an editorial out of it already indicates that mainstream media is slowly “waking up”.
Anthony, please receive incessant loud cheers from the opposite shore of the giant basin!
Great work.
Well done Anthony.
More power to you.
P
“…U.S. record is thought to be ‘the best in the world,”
A little bit of nationalism there?
Living in Germany (I am myself a U.S. citizen) and having looked at a couple of stations here myself, I can say firsthand the German stations are nowhere near as badly sited or maintained as the ones Anthony has exposed in the US.
In general, the Germans are real sticklers when it comes to precision, technical excellence and fulfilling norms and standards. I’m sure the same goes for other European countries like Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, etc. If they measure something, you can rely on their numbers. Clearly Anthony has proven that the US system is an utter atrocity
that has only accomplished two things: diminish US scientific integrity and waste billions of taxpayer dollars.
But the underlying point made in this thread is an accurate one. Surface stations are not accurate and their data simply cannot be used to make decisions. We definitely need to get the numbers straight. We have to rely more on the satellite data.
This article is priceless, what an achievement!! Congrats!!
I will see if i can spread it around.
Cheers 🙂
Keith Minto,
LOL! It was Churchill who said:
“Nothing focusses the mind like being shot at”.
Another, small, crack in the “concensus”.
I know not what size the “OCR” is, but I’d guess it’s a local/regional paper, unlikely to be staple reading at the breakfast tables of Washington or New York.
Doubtless the nationals still get the articles about Global Warming threatening pets, being caused by fat people, can be ameleorated by drinking less beer & not eating lamb. (Just picking what appear to be the most ludicrous “results”!)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/
OT: “Climate Bill Would Help Reduce U.S. Deficit, Federal Budget Office Says
“June 6 (Bloomberg) — U.S. climate legislation approved by a House committee would raise more revenue than it would cost in federal spending through 2019, the Congressional Budget Office said in a report yesterday.
“The budget estimate says the legislation, to cap greenhouse-gas emissions and create a system to trade pollution permits, would raise $845.6 billion, while adding $821.2 billion to federal spending, a $24.4 billion net gain.
“President Barack Obama, during a visit to Germany yesterday, expressed optimism about the legislation, saying the process “is moving forward” in ways that “would have seemed impossible two or three months ago.”
“The $24 billion in surplus over the next decade is far less than the $60 billion a year Obama once said would be available through the system to distribute to consumers through a tax credit to offset any higher energy costs. Republicans who oppose the measure may seize on the costs to consumers to rally opposition while the measure is being considered by several congressional panels.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=abxc2V1SE39U
Totally off topic but this item from the site of the German Embassy in London might provide some amusement:
Obama’s popularity in Germany
5 June 2009
A German production company has announced plans to stage an Obama musical. The announcement followed on the heels of a German toy manufacturer’s decision to market Bo, the Obamas’ pet dog, as a stuffed toy.
I notice some readers here are awfully and rightfully wary about the designs of the new Administration.
You’re being told stories about the horrors of socialism, government regulation and so on. Socialism has always been something Americans have rejected, and now it seems the socialists have found the ideal instrument (manmade climate catastrophe) to fool the people into accepting it.
Germany here is a socialist country, taxes are high and there’s a lot of regulation. Yet, I’m still living here and don’t plan on moving back to the US anytime soon. So “socialism” can’t be that bad, right?
The question you have to ask yourselves is:
Is the “socialism” now being proposed in the US designed to provide citizens, fairly, with more services and security, or is it designed to reward or punish people depending on how they behave?
If you answer the latter, then you’ve got lots to worry about. It would mean you have a government that is intolerant and authoritarian.
Wu..wu..wu..wu Anthony.
(doing the victory dance)
Just wish I could believe it would penetrate more than a few thick heads on capitol hill.
Death threats from climate extremists are nothing new. Tim Ball had some a few years ago.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1545134/Scientists-threatened-for-climate-denial.html
“I can tolerate being called a sceptic because all scientists should be sceptics, but then they started calling us deniers, with all the connotations of the Holocaust. That is an obscenity. It has got really nasty and personal.”
Joe Romm allows such threats to be propogated through his blog, and blocks the right of reply to those who disagree.
The Greenshirts are on the march.
Fascists on the attack, no bother worry ’bout that
Fascists on the attack, we will fight them back
-Linden Kwesi Johnson-
On the subject of measuring temps,
What is the source of data for this map?
http://weather.unisys.com/surface/sst_anom.html
and for this one?
http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/PSB/EPS/SST/climo&hot.html
Which is better?
Unisys seems to be updated every day, with exact numerical readings given at different locations on the map. Which one should I believe?