I thought about writing a year end recap, but then I saw my traffic count for the month at 00 GMT (4PM PST), and thought that would do just as well at telling the story for this year. After a slight dip in October and November, WUWT has reached a new high at nearly 900,000 page views this month.
Click for a larger image
Not bad for a 12 month growth. My hit counter, as of this writing, stands at:
6,840,995 hits
In December 2007, I hadn’t even broken 500,000.
Thanks to each and every one of you for visiting, contributing, and commenting. Thanks especially to the moderating team who keeps the temperature of this blog down whilst I think up new topics.
Here were the top 7 most popular posts in 2008, in case you missed them:
Top Posts
January 2008 – 4 sources say “globally cooler” in the past 12 months 140,090 views
A look at temperature anomalies for all 4 global metrics: Part 1 64,508 views
Where have all the sunspots gone? 59,144 views
Sudan hit by Apollo Asteroid 36,543 views
UAH: Global Temperature Dives in May 35,521 views
Solar Cycle 24 has officially started 34,877 views
Arctic sea ice back to its previous level, bears safe; film at 11 27,091 views
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All,
A very happy (and prosperous) New Year to y’all. It’s been enlightening learning, sparring and even sometimes agreeing with all of you through the year. I echo the cheers for the moderators – a hard, thankless job – especially with the number of retired engineers (a hard-headed and sometimes stubborn bunch to be sure) that visit this site.
May you double your hits this year Anthony, I wouldn’t worry about the internet bandwidth limiting talk, what with all the dark fiber in the ground from the big telecommunications growth spurt in the 90’s. Someone will light it up and then we’ll have a larger pipe to send our missives through.
Happy New Year everyone…
Mike
The graph correlates with CO2 as measured at Mauna Loa.
This blog is the cause of global warming.
Happy New Year Anthony and all the minds that gather here.
Congratulations Anthony, it has been an interesting year at WUWT.
With a PDO shift and quiet sun, 2009 promises to be even more interesting, especially with the political classes busy regulating greenhouse gases while real world temperatures decline.
The disparity between political fantasy and climate reality should provide more than enough material to drive your viewer numbers even higher, as more people seek a rational explanation for the disparity between what that they see and what they are being told they should see.
Again congratulations to you and you support team!
Thanks Anthony!
And, thanks to all of the comments that people write. The comments are as good as the posts.
To Lucijen Rejec:
I am sorry about the lack of prospects for your olive oil avocation; I would have loved to use some of it.
Congratulations, Anthony and thank you for bringing a such a wide variety of climate and weather topics to the attention of your viewers.
I particularly enjoy the “How not to measure temperature” posts as they always generate comments that show the wit, wisdom, and intelligence of your readers. They’re fun, informative, and a periodic reminder that good science is built on good data.
Anthony, I want to 2nd, 3rd, and unanimously pass into the record your statement above; “Thanks especially to the moderating team who keeps the temperature of this blog down whilst I think up new topics.”
The moderating team not only has a deft touch but is so devoted to keeping the posts flowing that posts appear about as close as possible to being in real time. The back and forth when a good discussion gets going is rarely delayed. (Don’t they ever sleep?!?!)
And I’ll keep coming back due to the quality of your posters. Awesome! I learn quite a bit and all of their “This is off topic, but…” posts dig up some really astute observations (eg Jeff Id, recently) that make this blog a must read.
Happy New Year to all and thank you Anthony, the moderating team, and the commenters on this blog!
I’ve found the people on this blog to be very helpful, providing links to, and emailing directly, publications that answer the questions I’ve asked. The discussion here is largely polite, direct, science-driven, and mostly on-topic.
Tamino’s page, however, is rude, obnoxious, and close-minded. Why would any skeptic go there and ask a reasonable question, or point out a logical flaw, when the only response is to be vilified, and called names? One person there even went the extra childish mile to make fun of my last name. It is not a scientific discussion of the ideas on their merits – it’s a cliquey flamefest.
I believe that good work gets rewarded, and the influx of traffic and interest in this site is a sure indication of that. This site welcomes all kinds – scientists, laymen, heathens and mystics. The discussion is open, the debate is lively, and I can’t recall any widespread name-calling. A big round of applause to Anthony and his moderators for creating one of the most intelligent discussion forums on the internet.
Just to say Happy New Year to Anthony and all those who contribute to this excellent blog. I live in the UK, where AGW is apparently our State Religion now, so it’s very pleasant indeed to visit a site like this – long live climate heresy!
Congrats, Anthony, and keep up the good work! Nothing succeeds like success.
Tamino and his ilk are obviously jealous, as well as enraged that more and more people are realizing that AGW is just a huge fraud. With the amount of cherry picking he does, he could go into the pie-making business.
Anthony and Moderators;
Thanks for the great education and congrats on the visits. Do you still have hair?
BTW, January isn’t looking so great. Back to the grinder with ya!!
Congrats again.
Great! More and more people are educating themselves about climate change. Yet, the new American president, Barak Obama, is acting and talking like man-made global warming is an incontrovertible fact.
Despite the fact that the AGW ship is sinking, it doesn’t matter if policy decisions are taken based on faith in this theory.
It’s hard to believe there is no one in Mr. Obama’s entourage who could sow the seeds of doubt.
I also think this is the best thing since baked bread. Thanks to Anthony, the moderators, the skeptics, the AGW crowd, the scientists, and all the other folks from the general population who love to learn by participating in these discussions. Taken all together, this blog is the tops. I have learned so much since joining. Some of the topics that have been a steep learning curve for me: The Sun, ocean currents, our atmosphere, the jet stream, orbit wiggles and tilt, magnetic anything, greenhouse gases (or in my case right now, greenhouse flakes), sea ice behavior, atmospheric particulates from natural sources as well as from pollution sources, and not least, human behavior related to the bandwagon phenomenon.
Anthony and all,
Happy new year, and congratulations with the success. I think it is maybe a sign that a lot of people have grown tired of what the tabloids have to say in this matter. I have been following this site since the “Where have all the sunspots gone?” post nearly a year ago, and clearly they are still gone, and I’m still here…
Please keep it all coming, 2008 was maybe the year when AGW was disproven, let 2009 be the year when the majority figures it out 🙂
Congratulations Anthony Watts,
I really am happy for you.
Have you ever considered putting advertisements on this blog? With all the hits you are now getting this has become an attractive blog to advertisers. The income from advertising dollars could help you a lot because I’ve read in a couple of your posts that you can’t spend as much time here now with the economy the way it is. Maybe advertising dollars would free you up to be here, who knows, possibly full time!
Also, with extra money you could advertise WattsUpWithThat on other web sites like Drudge.com. This would increase your hits and get the word out that there is another side to the global warming story.
Anthony –
Here’s to significant global cooling in 2009.
Check out the Good, the Bad and the Ugly New Year’s Resolutions –
http://andeeroo.wordpress.com/
Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous 2009!
And congratulations Anthony on eating RealClimate’s and Tamino’s lunch!
Congratulations Anthony on a great, (mainly) balanced and very informative site.
And Thank you. I found your blog early in the year, when I started to take a real interest in the AGW question. Reading your site has led to me (as a total non scientist) actually start studying the subject properly. I, and I expect many others, have discovered that climate is a very wide and complex subject. It is just a shame that nobody seems to be able to communicate even that much to politicians.
Because of media hype, the misinformation and lack of information that the general public hold is unbelievable. I mean, if you asked the ‘Average person’ how much CO2 there is in the atmosphere, what answer would you get? I bet it wouldn’t be less than 10%.
Thanks again. At least your site is getting more and more people some proper information.
My thoughts at the time: What is that fool doing painting a Stevenson screen with latex paint and blogging about it! Well I am still here every day and enjoying every minute of it. This blog is so good by itself, but the comments make it important as a calm and factual discussion of the weather patterns that make up the global climate.
Anthony, you are doing a great job. Please continue.
John Andrews, Knoxville, Tennessee
Just Want Truth…
Have you ever considered putting advertisements on this blog?
WOW Big Oil would salivate to advertize on here and give the AGW another whipping boy. sarcasm off.
Far better that it be supported by donations and less subject to perceptions of bias.
Have you sent your contribution in yet?
Congradulations to Anthony and his helpers.
Jeff Id (23:55:24) :
The more your blog grows the more the AGW guys hate it.
I’ve been declared stupid now by the ever classy tamino.
http://noconsensus.wordpress.com/2009/01/01/stupid-is-as-stupid-does-geek-fight/
Thanks for that! I had to spend a little time there to educate myself about him and his views, and I must admit being quite shocked to read his reasons for relying on GISS data (in his reply to “b_sharp”). I will not repeat his use of language, but note that his reasons are
1. They are from the USA
2. They interpolate the arctic rather than omit it.
3. It makes den**lists “unhappy” (his words were less diplomatic…)
None of these are valid scientific reasons, in fact they are totally un-scientific. The first seems like an odd argument as seen by anyone outside the US (like me). The second one is a “hair-raiser”: invented data is preferred over no data? The third argument demonstrates a complete lack of integrity.
Why does this less-than-serious person get so much attention?
Just to avoid any mistakes: by “there” I meant tamino’s site, not yours!
Sure did, Purchased the StormPredator product several months ago.
Because we keep talking about him. I refuse to go to any of the links posted here for his site for precisely that reason. You’re giving him more attention by discussing him and posting links to his page (since site hits denote popularity…)
Anthony,
Congratulations, and thanks for all your hard work.
Happy new year to everybody!
Warmists are such pessimists. It’s great seeing the optimism here.
Illegitimi non carborundum!
Smokey, note the charts on glaciers, here:
http://greenfyre.wordpress.com/2008/12/31/the-denialists-barrel-has-no-bottom/