Guest essay by Viv Forbes
No doubt we will hear how the current heatwaves in Australia are “unprecedented” and evidence of dangerous man-made global warming.
They are neither “global” nor “unprecedented”.
In the great heatwave of 1896, with nearly 200 deaths, the temperature at Bourke did not fall below 45.6 degC for six weeks, and the maximum was 53.3 degC. Bushfires raged throughout NSW and 66 people perished in the heat.
In 1897, Perth had an 18 day heatwave with a record of 43.3 degC. Other heatwaves were reported at Winton, 1891, Melbourne 1892, Boulia 1901, Sydney 1903, Perth 1906 and so on.
Why don’t we hear of these severe heatwaves from the past? Simple – the government Bureau of Meteorology conveniently ignores all temperature records before 1910.
However, that does not excuse our media for neglecting the written records such as these preserved in newspapers of the past.
Could it be that both the BOM and some of the media are still trying to preserve the ailing global warming scare?
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Without doubt this AGW scaremongering is sheer poppycock.
I remember many a stinking hot summer as a child in western Sydney and around 1954 where thetemperature was over 112 degrees Fahrenheit at Penrith in NSW for many days on end over the Christmas holidays at my uncles farm.
A heatwave in Aussie? Well blow me down, Sport, who would have thought? /sarc
For actual Australian temperature trends over time see the BOM website
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/change/index.shtml#tabs=Tracker&tracker=timeseries&tQ%5Bgraph%5D=tmean&tQ%5Barea%5D=aus&tQ%5Bseason%5D=0112&tQ%5Bave_yr%5D=0
Just checked Coober Pedy. http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=3786
A balmy 35 C a bit after 3 PM. Might up to 41 C in a day or two. No story. I should retire there!
😉
Wonder why more than half of Australia is a desert? Global warming made Alberta really cold. Who says magic is a fairy tale?
This is the “anti-global warming” Govt we have in power in Australia. Yes, global warming is shite, but in my 44 years haven’t been in 4 days of 40+ degree temps & I’m in Gippsland. Friday felt like time I went to Sacramento 1999.
Spot on Peter. The sooking and moaning by the MSM about a few days of hot weather has been disgraceful. Just as in other places, we now have the media sport of them all ghoulishly lined up, barracking for soem sort of heat disaster or firestorm, to justify the hype they have engaged in. We ahd the ridiculous headlines of “worst heatwave since Black Saturday”, a time of terrible bushfires here. And just when was it ? 2009!
And of course not far behind the ambulance, is our usual suspects of Flannery, Steffen, Karoly and Lewinsky with their usual ‘end is nigh’ pronouncements.
Well said. Can you follow up with an article about how normal and desirable bush fires are within Australia as well? How they’re absolutely crucial to germination, reproduction and development of so many species, and how fire is a part of the flora’s ‘foreplay’ within Australia. And thus crucial to the health and sustainment of the environment, biota and soil. And mention also how many of the trees are full of combustible natural oils as well, and how rather nice but otherwise unwise people build their house in such a forest, and desire/require power lines to run through them. And how the wires clash together when the wind blows as a front passes, and how this leads to intense showers of sparks that inevitably creates massive blazes in windy hot conditions. I don’t think the BBC, Al Jazeera or CNN quite get the picture. Unfortunately the ABC have also lost their marbles in recent years.
Viv, have you sent this on to our MSM…perhaps “our ABC”?
Short memories seem to me to be a result of information overload and little critical thinking. No effort=no memorable conclusions.
All the best,
Dave
Whenever I hear or read about “the hottest” temperature I am reminded of the Johnny Carson routines during which he would say something like “It was really hot in L.A. today.”
The audience would respond “How hot was it?” Carson would answer with several statements of “It was so hot today I saw a robin dipping his worm in Nestea.” -slight pause- “It was so hot today that Burger King was singing, “if you want it your way, cook it yourself.”
http://www.jokes4us.com/peoplejokes/comedianjokes/johnnycarsonjokes.html
Try it: It was hot in OZ this week.
How hot was it?
It was so hot the Roos had bags of ice cubes in their britches.
I kept records in the 60’s and 70’s. Two days were 120F, 50C. It was not unusual to get 10 days (in a row) over 110F. It was more unusual to have mild summers. You could always expect some high temps in the summer. This is nothing new but like I have said before they are attempting to create a new climate with 35C as a scorcher. One reason for this is for workers to knock off at the new high of 35C. Some industries cease to operate if the temp gets near 40C, even though some of these are air conditioned. Now a lot of these people live in rarified air.
SideShowBob says: January 20, 2014 at 8:42 pm – For actual Australian temperature trends over time see the BOM website.
Not correct SideShowBob, those will be misleading trends where the BoM has adjusted the past to be cooler.
And craig eyles from Gippsland January 20, 2014 at 8:48 pm can you please post your nearest town ?
I remember clearly Christmas 1970 living in the Pilbra. As we sat down for the midday meal dad showed everyone his new thermometer he was given for Christmas, which read 125 F, in the shade, which is 51.6 degrees C. It was hot but we weren’t surprised by it. We’d been told this was fairly typical on hot days. After that we went outside and played. It was like that on most days in summer and we never even talked about it, let alone let it stop us enjoying the day. In fact we were quite proud of it, and us kids considered ourselves ‘tough’. This was the common attitude to the heat back then. I suppose its much the same as the Russian’s attitude to deep cold.
Only now are we we getting urban dwellers who have never experienced a genuine hot temperature, and don’t prepare for it, mentally, who are not tough, and who complain endlessly that their world is coming to an end, on low-humidity days with temps as low as 42 C!
I can’t even take them seriously.
“Not correct SideShowBob, those will be misleading trends where the BoM has adjusted the past to be cooler.”
Have you got a source and evidence for this? Even our conservative government who are scaling back action on mitigating warming make no such claim. The BOM is a well respected institution within Australia.
If you actually have some good evidence to back this claim up, then great, we have something to discuss, but if you are making this claim based on an extrapolation of your ideological view of these issues, then that is pretty weak if you ask me.
Whatever it is…it’s a conspiracy I say!! Jokes…it’s just bloody hot.
Yet at the same time in northern Australia it was cold (in comparison).
…Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Todd Smith said yesterday was on par with the coolest January day in Darwin’s recorded weather history.
“It reached 25.7C. The last time we had a temperature that low was on January 1989 since records began 72 years ago,” Mr Smith said.”It’s very rare.”
http://www.ntnews.com.au/news/northern-territory/as-other-capitals-sweat-its-cool-to-be-in-darwin/story-fnk0b1zt-1226802644894
You can play with that link SSB.
Try excluding the spurious minimum temps, choose hot February and you get
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/change/index.shtml#tabs=Tracker&tracker=timeseries&tQ%5Bgraph%5D=tmax&tQ%5Barea%5D=aus&tQ%5Bseason%5D=02&tQ%5Bave_yr%5D=3
Drumphil
If you have the time there is plenty of evidence to show BOM’s ‘adjustments’. You need to check BOM’s raw data with the new ACORN data.
For instance, Bourke in Jan 1939 had all +30C adjusted down and the two temps below 30C adjusted up. Go figure.
Mildura’s top temp of 50.8C was adjusted down to around 48.0C.
What?
We have history?
About all that is left for the consensus crew is book burning, destruction of all libraries.
A fine finish to the job they have done on public education.
These same people/cliches never stop their gnawing at the foundations of civilization, while it looks like their great cause is collapsing into farce, check your wallet and read your bills.
One has less, the others demand more.
You have not received any greater benefits but the bill collectors masters need more wealth.
The cost of the parasitic class grows ever more oppressive.
Parasites cannot be “negotiated with”, they do not drop off voluntarily before they are sated, their nature does not change.
Climate hysteria is but one arm of the beast. A ploy to keep us distracted from focusing our attention on those who are robbing us blind.
Our governments.
Who knew Kleptocracy was a real word?
Sad how desperate the shills of our media are to sing the old song, “Hot Hot Hot”.
If its cold its weather but if its hot its not, no now its climate.
Last week was my birthday and I was reminded by my mother that when I was born 55 years ago I came 3 weks premature, brought on by the extreme heat wave that week in Warragul (Gippsland) Victoria – 4 days above 40 degrees. Nothing new.
It funny how people will use the adjusted government records to argue that it warmer to day than it was in the past. Yet we are in a seventeen year pause, and if you look any where in the record you are hard pressed to find a similar time where the temperature paused for any extended period of time, it always seem to be going up or down.. Funny have any of you wonder maybe this pause is due to the fact the our fine climate find in there measurement a cooling world and damn no matter how much the adjust the present that can only add some much warming that all they can do it hold it steady after all to many eyes are watching the present and there is only so much you can do with the present temperature record. But damn we certainly can adjust the past since most people who lived through are dead, after all who to say we are wrong. Maybe it just my suspicious nature but damn I really question someone whom rewrites the past and I just cannot bring myself to trust them at any level after you find they are will and able to present data that been adjusted and not tell you how and why they adjusted it and good forbid let you see the original data.
Lastly I have vague memories that science was you though up a guess and then you got your data together and presented it to support you guess and you presented all of the data the good and the bad, what supported what you guess and what did not, and then you ask other to check it, not just the data but you process and also they need to duplicate that process and it their number supported you guess good if not well maybe I need another guess. Yet in the climate crowd that not the science they use. Again maybe it only my suspicious nature. All I really know is I have use the guess method for years and it served me well in fixing electronics and computers, you look at the data you have you guess what may be the problem you act on it if the device works after you find the suspect component or software, good. If that did not fix the problem you need a new guess. Yet for climate science that not the way it works, damn to think I been doing it wrong all these years.
“Why don’t we hear of these severe heatwaves from the past? Simple – the government Bureau of Meteorology conveniently ignores all temperature records before 1910.”
Likely due to Stevenson screens not being completely everywhere (though there were only a few exceptions) until then. That said, all official stations were in the shade, so I doubt they would have been unreliable measurements.
January 20, 2014 at 8:42 pm | SideShowBob says:
————
Side show indeed … these are the BoM’s crafted temperature anomolies after their ‘homogenisation’.
Drumphil,
Article on the BOM adjustments here:
http://joannenova.com.au/2012/06/threat-of-anao-audit-means-australias-bom-throws-out-temperature-set-starts-again-gets-same-results/
This is an odd post – lots on temps in the past, but no numbers on the actual heat last week. It was very hot (here is my complaint at the time). Max temperatures in Melbourne for the first 5 days of the Australian Open were 31.1, 42.8,41.7, 43.9 and 43.9°C. Or, if you prefer, 88, 109, 107, 111, 111°F.
Now we’ve seen hotter days. And even a longer heat wave, in 1908, where maxima were close to or above 40 for six days. But they are rare. From 1855 to 2013, Melbourne averaged 1.3 days per summer in total exceeding 40°C. For the last thirty years, the average has been 1.7. So four consecutive days well over 40 is bound to attract comment.