GOOD NEWS: The update planned for this weekend went far smoother than expected, requiring only about an hour of time, with about 15 minutes of that in “maintenance mode” where the home page was hidden. I spent the last week testing the updates on a sandbox site, and all those tests and preparations made the update today go super smoothly. This method worked far better and with less headache than trying to backup the entire site, make changes, then port it over like we tried and failed to successfully do before in the fall. Lesson learned.
You may not notice changes right away, but they are there. I tried hard to keep the look and feel mostly the same, but fix a lot of stuff on the backend that has been troublesome.
WHAT YOU WONT SEE:
- Changes in the colors or site formatting.
- Changes in how the content is displayed.
- Changes in commenting procedure or display.
- Loss of any content or comments.
WHAT YOU WILL SEE:
- New header image – I decided to retire the old one we’ve had for a decade – new one is similar.
- Improved page loading speed on Desktop browsers, especially the main/home page.
- Improved Mobile/Tablet loading speed, and better compatibility.
A slight fade transition between clicking a link and a new page/story appears.slowed some loads down too much – will revisit.- Improved load speed when you press the BACK button or back arrow in your browser.
- Improved version of the Failed Climate Predictions Timeline – months in the making.
Coming up –
- Adding a search feature to the Failed Climate Predictions Timeline.
- At the same time, improve WUWT general search.
- Improved version of the Climate TV page.
Incremental speed improvements – now that we are using a modern theme that is supported – we can fix things.DONE.Changes/Updates to some of the right sidebar items to improve page load times. DONE.- Updates to the Reference Pages, which have long-been neglected.
Thanks for your patience. If you like these improvements, consider either leaving a tip, or becoming a subscribing member of WUWT.
-Anthony Watts
To the Readers of Watts Up With That,
I want to take a moment to offer a sincere thank-you to all of you who read, comment, share, and support Watts Up With That. When I started this site back in 2006, the goal was fairly simple: provide a place where climate claims could be examined critically, data could be discussed openly, and questions could be asked without fear of being shouted down for violating some supposed “consensus.” I never imagined it would grow into what it has become today.
WUWT exists because of you. The readers here bring an extraordinary range of expertise—engineers, scientists, meteorologists, statisticians, economists, farmers, pilots, and informed laypeople who simply refuse to accept claims without evidence. Many of you regularly spot errors the mainstream media misses, dig up original source material, run independent analyses, and contribute thoughtful comments that elevate the discussion far beyond what passes for climate debate elsewhere.
That kind of engagement matters. In an era when climate science has become deeply politicized, transparency and accountability are more important than ever. Models are treated as oracles, uncertainty is brushed aside, and dissent is often caricatured rather than addressed. Yet science does not advance by slogans, press releases, or appeals to authority—it advances by skepticism, replication, and honest debate. You help keep those principles alive.
I’m also grateful for your patience and good humor. Despite frequent attacks, mischaracterizations, and the occasional attempt to silence discussion altogether, the WUWT community has largely remained civil, data-focused, and grounded in reality. A little wit doesn’t hurt either—sometimes the best way to expose an absurd claim is simply to let it collapse under its own weight.
Finally, thank you to those who support the site financially, submit guest posts, send tips, or simply read quietly in the background. Every visit, every comment, every shared article helps ensure that alternative viewpoints don’t disappear in an increasingly narrow media landscape.
WUWT will continue to do what it has always done: question assumptions, follow the data, highlight uncertainty, and push back against claims that don’t stand up to scrutiny. None of that would be possible without you.
Thank you for being part of this community. Merry Christmas!
— Anthony Watts
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Merry Christmas
“WUWT exists because of you”.
Wrong.
WUWT exists because A. Watts does it. Without A. Watts this would never have happened and the world would be a much poorer place.
Well if I didn’t have an audience, I would not have had any effect, and likely would have given up years ago…so without “you” it would not be here today.
Keep up the good work!
I asked Bing: Who was the first greenhouse skeptic? In an instant after I hit the enter key, Bing replied: John L. Daly of Australia. I was amassed and astonished how first I got the answer. The late John L. Daly’s website: “Still Waiting For Greenhouse” available at: http://www.john-daly.com. Shown below is the home page.
NB: If you click on the image, it will expand and become clear. Click on “X” in the circle to contact the image and return to Comments.
The Iceman Cometh! (9 Jan 2001)
“The northern winter can no longer be dismissed as an isolated
cold snap'. Right across the northern hemisphere, the story has been the same - freezing cold, snow blizzards, and record-breaking low temperatures.</strong><strong>In the USA, the Great Lakes have been freezing over, requiring the use of ice breakers to maintain shipping traffic. In December, two ships were stuck in the icy Detroit River causing a two-day traffic jam for shipping. Lakes Huron, Erie and Michigan have extensive areas of surface ice, with the passage between Lakes Michigan and Huron requiring constant icebreaking to keep the channel open.</strong>
<strong>The cooling was widespread with 43 states recording subnormal temps. All-time state cold records were set in Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Buffalo received its earliest 100 inch snow total ever at the start of this month. The 13.4 inches of snow that fell in New York City's Central Park in December made it the snowiest December since 1960. This put the year as a whole in New York at 53.8°F, about 1° below normal. Nine of the twelve months of 2000 in New York were below normal, including a streak of 7 straight below normal months so far (apparently continuing into January). It was the coldest December on record for Louisville and Paducha, Kentucky; the second coldest on record for Evansville, Indiana, Akron and Toledo, Ohio, and one of the coldest for Chicago, where records go back to 1872. It was also the second coldest at Kansas City, Missouri (since 1886), and at Minneapolis, Minnesota. In "the nation's icebox" of International Falls, Minnesota, it was in the top five coldest Decembers.</strong>
<strong>November and December in the U.S. was the coldest on record, averaging 33.8°F, breaking the previous record of 34.2°F set in 1898. According to the National Climate Center, "The eastern and western United States will experience additional cold outbreaks at least through March with periods of moderation in between".</strong>
<strong>In Russia, a severe cold wave settled in over western Siberia and the Far East, sending temperatures down as low as -70°C. The temperature, a 30-year record, was recorded in the Kemerovo region about 1,800 miles east of Moscow, while temperatures in much of the rest of Russia east of the Ural Mountains were around -40°C. The industrial city of Krasnoyarsk endured its fifth consecutive day in which the temperature fell to -50C. The Russian cold wave, which is expected to last several more days, has put a strain on Russia's power plants and heating stations.</strong>
<strong>Mongolia in central Asia has again been gripped by aZud’, freezing conditions which are deadly for the livestock upon which much of the population is dependent. In sub-tropical Florida, farmers have found their citrus trees under attack from the cold.
Even in the southern hemisphere, which is having its summer, highland residents in Tasmania awoke on Christmas morning to a deep cover of snow. Meanwhile an Australian Antarctic supply vessel, Polar Bird, found itself trapped in sea ice for over 3 weeks at a time when we were all told that summer sea ice at the poles was thinning.
But all this did not begin in November. The cooling in the USA began as early as June last year when summer temperatures across the eastern half of the US were well below normal, a cooling which extended into the autumn (or
fall').</strong><strong><u>The NOAA put on a defensive smokescreen of spin in the hope that the cooling would be temporary, constantly pointing to the mild winter and warm spring which preceded the cooling early in 2000. But now, months later, the cooling has persisted, raising the possibility that we may be witnessing a periodic climateshift’, the last one being a warm shift around 1976-77.”
A failed prediction based on short term weather events, wrapped in conspiratorial framing. It’s a shame he passed before seeing his prediction fall apart.
Thank you Anthony, your website has offered me many years of both education and entertainment!
Updates to the reference pages will be much appreciated!!!!
Congratulations on the quick update. Job well done.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.
Excellent job Anthony,
I didn’t even need to log in again. 😉
My only internet claim to fame, was a shared article we both worked on.
Using your great search engine one can find it by entering my user name.
Egad posted 11 years ago..
Congrats on a tricky job very well done after careful prep. Tested some stuff before commenting—everything seems ok.
Thanks Anthony, really appreciate the site.
Geeze Louise. I “Grok’d” this site and their response was…
———-
Watts Up With That? (often abbreviated as WUWT and accessible at wattsupwiththat.com) is a prominent blog focused on climate change, global warming, weather, and related scientific topics. Founded in 2006 by Anthony Watts, a former television meteorologist, it describes itself as “the world’s most viewed site on global warming and climate change,” featuring news, commentary, and guest contributions that often critique mainstream climate science narratives.
The blog emphasizes skepticism toward the scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming, highlighting issues like data quality in surface temperature records, urban heat islands, and natural climate variability. It has been highly influential in online discussions, with high traffic and awards in blogging categories.
Critics, including sources like Wikipedia and science feedback organizations, label it as a platform promoting climate change skepticism or denial, arguing it selectively presents data to downplay human influences on climate.
———-
I guess it could be considered illiterate to have “skepticism toward scientific consensus”. We should all pay strict attention to the excellent critics of WUWT like Wikipedia and science feedback organizations…NOT! 🙂
If you see all the ads, does that mean your subscription has run out?
Thank you for all you do, Anthony!
If I were religious, I’d describe WUWT as a god-send, and mean it.
Very sincere, very big thanks to you Anthony, and to Charles, and to all the folks who who backstage to make it all happen.
However, the thing that has not changed is the ads.
I don’t understand what the plan is with them. It may be to make the site so unpleasant to visit that people either subscribe or go away, is that it? If they generate large income, that seems equally inexplicable, I can’t believe anyone here clicks through, still less buys anything as a result.
I can’t actually imagine what the business model of the ad company is, and have wondered if its really a matter of paid site sabotage? They are paying you to carry stuff they know or hope will wreck your site?
I have no objection to ads in principle, and realize that the site must be funded somehow. And my problem with these ads is not that I object to seeing them – like all ads of this sort they are easy enough to block out. So please don’t tell me about those tools, I know all about them and use them when necessary.
No, the problem is that whether I see them or not the site is polluted with sub National Inquirer material at scale. It devalues the site. It has made me leave for a while, even when I don’t usually see them, and I have been reading WUWT pretty much since it started, and it may make me leave permanently.
Why are you doing this? Surely you can find some source of acceptable and tasteful ads, if the ad funded model is the chosen way to go?
I hope you do not find this excessively negative and critical. Its based on a respect for the aims and achievements of the site. Its been a great force for good and a voice of sanity in the general hysteria about climate and energy. That is what makes it such a shame that its being wrecked by these endless pages of tasteless garbage.
I have an ad blocker. When I got my new Lenovo laptop computer, my tech savy son installed an ad blocker but he don’t tell me. If your browser has an extension store, try searching for “uBlock Origin”. If that search does not find an ad blocker, try this search: Where can I obtain a free ad blocker? There are free ad blockers available. Be careful. Several commenters here have mentioned that some ad blockers also install spyware.
Awhile back I went to a website and on the first screen, there appeared in big all caps letters: TURN OFF AD BLOCKER. No thank you! I came right back to WUWT!
Or, instead of denying us any revenue at all from our work, you could become a paid subscriber. But given the grouchiness you have on display here regularly, that’s probably not going to happen.
If you don’t want to see that message, make this site an exception in your blocker’s settings.
You might have to scroll down a bit more at times, but what does that cost you?
Michel,
I can relate. You can blame Google. We used to have tasteful ads from Google WordAds (via WordPress) and also the Google Ads stream…but since scumbags that can’t handle us publishing alternate opinions lobbied Google to have us banned, we’ve got few options. I wish it weren’t so. But ….we are fighting a gigantic foe.
The one option you do have (unless you want to be a grouchy content squatter like Harold Pierce per his comment below,) would be to get a basic paid subscription to WUWT which will eliminate all the ads, good, bad, or ugly. I hope you will consider it. See here: https://wattsupwiththat.com/plans-support-climate-realism-choose-the-membership-that-fits-you-best/
Thanks for your consideration.
Anthony
P.S. If we actually had any of the “big oil shill money” that some stupid people claim we have, I would not need ads at all.
Thanks for clarifying the reason for the crap ads. I expect to always be a subscriber. Not to keep ads away, but to contribute to keeping this invaluable site running.
Thank you, Anthony!
I think I first became a “regular” back in 2012. I saw some ads. (One was a cute, young brunette in her underwear and work boots in an ad selling work boots.)
I later got an adblocker and she disappeared.
Later I found out that the ads help WUWT keep going, so I made the WUWT site and exception.
Now I see ads, but, alas, that cute, young brunette is long gone.
She might still be cute, but she wouldn’t be “young” anymore!
(I miss her, but I don’t think my wife does!) 😎
I think that every variation of an Ice Core graph should be sent to every email address in the world.
Thank you Anthony, Charles et al for 19 years of science and journalism that needed to be put before the people. I cannot imagine the path to disaster that would have been forced upon voters without your voices to show the harder, better way to combat truthless propaganda.
I cannot recall if I joined the WUWT fraternity at its start, but it would have been close. Thank you also for allowing we Australians space to report our developments for contrast and comparison with your US of A. The scorecard as we start into 2026 is heavily in your favour. We just about lead the hopeless ninnie states with no electoral relief in sight for 3 years. Somewhere between 1 and 10 climate change events to end life on earth are “projected” to happen within that 3 years. Geoff S
Thanks Geoff! You joined around 2008, IIRC.
I think I discovered WUWT around 2008 too. Had to change handles a couple times because of other people using the same name. I’ve learned a lot here, and not all about climate.
Great stuff Anthony. Onward and upwards. Here’s hoping for a great new year to you and the WUWT community.
Failed Predictions: Thank you; the link is obvious.
Is there a way to see them without clicking through one at a time?
You can drag them from right to left and vice versa.
Test post 1
Note to website programmers : I wrote a shorter post on this subject under another article, but after taking my brain out of neutral (for a change) concluded it would be better to post a more comprehensive “check out all the possibilities” version here.
.
Having noticed some people having “Why did this double post ?!?” comments, which has never happened to me, it is probably best to include data allowing exploration of the possibility that my problems are “device + OS + browser” specific.
Unlikely with a WUWT-website supplied “Comment Box” and set of “buttons” to add HTML tags, but just in case …
I use a (8+ year old) laptop computer, with Linux Mint (21.3, XFCE edition) and the Pale Moon browser.
.
This line has a single bolded word.
This line has a single underlined word.
This line has one word that is both.
.
Now let’s triple-check that the “preview” version is correct on my computer screen, then click on the “Post Comment” button …
“Test post 1” results
OK, despite the “preview” version being correct the “bold” option now “spreads” from a single word to the entire “blockquote” section … probably due to the contents of the “post-submission final checks / filtering” phase ???
This behaviour is new (to me at least) i.e. only seen after last Saturday’s “update” …
“Test post 1” results, V2
The “underlined only” version seems to have “spread” as a bold option …
Is it just my computer screen, or is the default “blockquote” text now in “bold”, and the individual words I selected to be “bold” are now “extra bold” within those “blockquote” lines ?
Can anyone else see, on their computer screens, a definite differentiation between “default blockquote” and “bolded blockquote” text fonts ???
.
vs
.
Or maybe I just need a prescription for a new set of glasses …
Test post 2
On the previous website I had issues with any underlined text … i.e. “u” HTML tags ? … being “stripped out” if I wanted to use the “Edit” option to correct spelling and grammatical mistakes.
This post will check if that still happens by copying the lines that worked OK above …
This line has a single bolded word.
This line has a single underlined word.
This line has one word that is both.
… and then using the “Gearwheel –> Edit” option to add another line to it before clicking on the “Save” button …
“Test post 2” results
The post appeared on-screen after clicking on “Save” as expected …
… but when I clicked on my browser’s “Refresh / Reload current page” button all underlining has now disappeared … but only the underlining (/ “u” HTML tags) ?!?
.
I have no idea whatsoever how that even could happen, it comes under what I call either “wizard” or “magical” level of programming.
Good luck “debugging” this one …
Mark, on my computer (Mac using Firefox) what I see is this:
Happy New Year, WUWT! I look forward to experiencing the updates, though I was somewhat disappointed when one thing didn’t appear: The message “Howdy, Michael” in the top red bar was always nice to see. Now it’s gone. No big deal, but I always knew I was logged in from the start.