If you’ve heard the national media talk about the 2011 State of the Climate report released by NOAA Tuesday, you’re apt to think the world is about to end due to man-made global warming! The media takes the report and highlights the most-alarming information they can find and pass it off as news. (You can read the report here.) What they don’t tell you is the other side of the man-made global warming debate. Two of the main references in the media Tuesday is that the previous 12-month period is the warmest on record in the U.S. and that the Polar ice caps are melting. To address the latter topic, the image above shows that Arctic sea ice is certainly on the decline since records began in 1979 (a very small dataset, by the way). On the flip side, Antarctic sea ice is on the rise.
The intense heat over the Central and Eastern United States made headlines during the second half of June and for good reason – it was hot! Some of the hottest weather in years for parts of the country. But unprecedented? No. The United States historically has had the best observation network in the world. There have been problems, though, as most observation stations were not initially set-up to monitor long-term climate. That has led NOAA to create sets of “quality control and homogeneity assessment algorithms” to manipulate the data. Thus, when you hear the media tout NOAA’s assessment that the last 12 months have been the warmest on record (most records go back to the 1890s), you need not be too alarmed. I picked three random stations from across the country to show you what I mean. First, is Grand Coteau, LA, located a little north of Lafayette. Here is the raw temperature record from the 1890s thru 2011.
After NOAA completes their “manipulation” of the data, this is what you have:
Notice how the warm period that peaked in the 1930s becomes cooler, the cooler period from the 1940s-1970s becomes warmer, and the last 20-30 years become much warmer. The raw data doesn’t show any trend that would support man-made global warming alarmism, but the second image does. Here are some other random stations that exhibit the same qualities.
Algona, IA, raw temperature data:
Algona, IA, after NOAA’s manipulation:
Angelica, NY, raw temperature data:
Angelica, NY, after NOAA’s manipulation:
You can go thru all the stations in the US Historical Climatology Network yourself by clicking here. I have little doubt those in the national media and some key players at NOAA are pushing a pro man-made global warming agenda. Unfortunately, the topic has become so wrapped in politics and money that the only way to get some clarity is by actually looking at the data. Don’t believe what I say, don’t believe what the media says, don’t believe what anyone says. Do the research yourself and dig into the raw data. Not the manipulated data, but the raw data. The crazy weather we have seen this year, from drought, to floods, to tornadoes, to hurricanes, to heat waves, to derechoes, etc., have all happened in the past. The weather is always crazy! Every year features extreme events – that’s the way it’s always been. Dig into the data and you may see, like I have, there is no need to fear catastropic climate change, a.k.a., man-made global warming.