Comments on: UAH global temperature anomaly up significantly this month

By: Jesse

Jesse — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 01:57:34 +0000

If you site hasn’t developed a problem, my computer just decided to go crazy.

By: An Inquirer

An Inquirer — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:25:08 +0000

Concerning UAH’s intention to change its daily data base from to Aqua AMSU in the next few weeks, I understand the motivation to do that, but I am curious on how they will maintain a consistent data base at http://discover.itsc.uah.edu/amsutemps/. That website currently presents raw data from a drifting satellite that subsequently reads high. When UAH changes to Aqua AMSU, current daily data will be quite accurate, but will the historical data on the website continue to be the biased-high NOAA-15 data?

By: Adam Soereg

Adam Soereg — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 08:02:41 +0000

ChLT and Ch6 (900 and 400Mb levels) are also going down.

By: Adam Soereg

Adam Soereg — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 08:00:40 +0000

This enormous jump between last June and July seems to be ‘unprecedented’ in the UAH MSU record. However, the daily Ch5 anomaly is dropping at the moment, it is almost certain that August will be significantly colder.

See: http://discover.itsc.uah.edu/amsutemps/execute.csh?amsutemps+002

By: Observer

Observer — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:39:56 +0000

The three highest monthly temperature spikes in the whole of the UAH data series are 0.293, 0.292, 0.286, the three lowest dips are -0.277, -0.281, -0.281, and now we get a spike of 0.407… seems anomalous to me … unprecedented in the whole of the UAH data series

By: Mary Hinge

Mary Hinge — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 08:44:59 +0000

Second post-
Now we move to later in the year, following are the temperature anomolies and precipitation anomolies from March May inc. http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/img/climate/research/2009/may/map-land-sfc-mntp-200903-200905-pg.gif
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/img/climate/research/2009/may/map-prcp-200903-200905-pg.gif
These show clearly the higher temperatures and lower precipitation in Western Europe.
As I stated in an earlier post there are always more than one reason for migration events such as this years and it is only when they all come together that events occur.
As I noted above, the behavioural change in these butterflies is quite remarkable. They fly in a much more purposeful manner stopping only briefly to drink nectar for a few seconds before flying on. I assume the North American Painted Ladies have the same behaviour when conditions force them to migrate en masse. During this phase they can fly over 1,000 miles, before they start laying eggs. The subsequent generation has the gentle flying behaviour we all know and love!

By: Mary Hinge

Mary Hinge — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 08:31:24 +0000

Climate Heretic (14:40:14) :
Always interesting raising your own lepidopterans, nature at her glorious best!
I take on board what you are saying and I hope I can show you that the weather is the driver for these mass migrations. I will do this explanation in two posts as there are 4 links and I don’t want to fall victim to the spam filter.
The first part is the cooler weather and higher rainfall over North Africa and Southern Europe at the begining of the year. The following links show temperature and precipitation anomolies from December to February. http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/img/climate/research/2009/feb/map-land-sfc-mntp-200812-200902-pg.gif
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/img/climate/research/2009/feb/map-prcp-200812-200902-pg.gif.
The extra rainfall produces an increase in the available foodplants and the initial population explosion reported. Next post:-

By: Melbournian

Melbournian — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 03:05:45 +0000

Cairns in Queensland Australia has been pretty cool last month…. and cloudy during the day. The extra warmth must have been out over the ocean ‘eh?

Or over Melbourne Australia.

By: Climate Heretic

Climate Heretic — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 21:40:14 +0000

Mary,

This topic is interesting and I was forced to look up information as I was running off my Biology lessons – the lifespan I used was based on full caterpillars to end of life, we raised them as an experiment and they arrived as caterpillars,so I stand corrected on the following..

Life Cycle is 3(egg) + (14/21)(larval) + 6(pupa)+ 14(adult) = 37/44 Days as you point out BUT even with that correction it does not invalidate my point. It does not even change Generation Count.

Let me re-explain to you the issue…
1) Warmer weather does DECREASE life span (mature quicker)
2) The Butterflies arrive all season because of staggered generations.
3) Based on Timing (May 27th and June 1st are not that far apart) so Counting First Flight on Feb 14th as Generation 1 and moving through time (108 Days), they would be on Generation 4 to arrive with enough time to lay eggs.
4) The butterflies are not outside of their native range nor are they outside of their arrival window, they are just in greater numbers based on POPULATION at the start of the migration.
5) If temperature was pushing them North as you claim then just based on Generations and Time they would have died off to normal levels or arrived earlier, and if temperatures were up they would have required more generations and hence more food because warmer weather reduces lifespan putting even more downward pressure on total population.
6) Migrations are not just based on food supply, habitat ranges are, and there is not any indication of Northward habitat relocation or changes in Migration Pattern.

I am not sure what you were trying to say about living in the UK and what residents there would say about what, so I will not address it.

Then Finally I did not see any prolonged temperature anomaly along the route that would contribute to migratory pressures this season, if you have that data I would be interested in it.

By: Pamela Gray

Pamela Gray — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 17:08:21 +0000

Dennis, the same people on this blog usually post the “sky is falling” thought many times about a quiet Sun and global cooling. There is no consensus about the correlation or lack thereof of the Solar/Earth temperature connections among the general participants (frequent flyers or just once or twice a month visitors). That said, I understand your comment.

By: Tyler

Tyler — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 10:53:42 +0000

WHAT’s up with this? Can anybody still get the monthly temp anomaly? I’m hunting around for July and it looks unavailable until further notice (maybe their spin art machine is broken):

U.S. Climate Monitoring Weekly Products
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Climatic Data Center

• Map Selection Menu
• Background
• Differences between these data and official monthly averages
• Weekly Mean Temperature Data
(unavailable until further notice)
• Month-To-Date Temperature Anomaly Data
(unavailable until further notice)
• Contacts

Please help, T.

By: dennis ward

dennis ward — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 06:30:55 +0000

Whatever happened to all the alarmist predictions of global cooling after two years of relatively low solar activity?

By: Steve Keohane

Steve Keohane — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 04:30:52 +0000

Phil. (16:53:09) : …although it might be warmer in the summer the day length variation means that the growing season will be shorter hence the short season requirement. The day length variation is towards longer days in the summer as one goes north, and more growing time even though the ‘season’ is shorter.

By: Jimmy Haigh

Jimmy Haigh — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:43:44 +0000

Pamela Gray (09:21:42) :

“Runny Babbit A Billy Sook” by Shel Silverstein.

Thanks for this Pamela – I’ll have to get a copy. (I seem to have started this nonsense here – thanks to Mary!)

From Wikipedia: “Other than speaking only in spoonerisms, Runny is a normal child. He has many friends, and two loving parents, his “dummy and mad,” who often remind him to “shake a tower” and other chores.”

By: Pamela Gray

Pamela Gray — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:21:42 +0000

“Runny Babbit A Billy Sook” by Shel Silverstein.

A very funny book to read out loud on a Sunday morning in bed with hot coffee laced with generous amounts O’Irish Cream. The more coffee you drink, and the more you read the verse, the funnier it gets.