Darn Global Warming (Sarcasm) 2 stories of wide area record cold.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

http://www.epa.gov/heatisland/about/measuring.htm

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/ushcn/hcntmptrends.php

http://sites.google.com/site/globalwarmingquestions/ar4uhi

[Nitrogen]

That is a matter of opinion.

No, it' really not.  

Urban Heat Island effect was understood 200 years ago.  I suppose you can still say "it's a matter of opinion" like you could say about relativity too, if you really wanted.  My opinion states that the sky is blue, and that opinion is backed by countless observations, as well as explanations of the phenomena  that have withstood the test of time.

Besides, if warming was primarily caused by an urban heat island effect, I'd expect to see warming primarily in urban areas.  I don't.  Look how much warming you see in the north pole, and across much of Asia and the middle of Africa.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

It's not that heat island effect isn't understood, it's that it isn't properly addressed and accounted for.

Rural stations have their own host of problems, too, having nothing at all to do with heat island effects. 

I'd get fired if any of my data acquisition installations had the kinds of problems that are norm among US surface stations.  And I'd wager that overseas stations are on balance even worse than ours.  So pardon me if I don't have any sympathy for the "eh, these problems are no big deal" and the "meh, we can just adjust the data to correct the errors" arguments.

Yes, these problems are a big deal.

No, you can't correctly correct the data.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

http://sites.google.com/site/globalwarmingquestions/ar4uhi


Update (2008):

A paper by Chinese scientists, Ren, G., Zhou, Y., Chu, Z., Zhou, J., Zhang, A., Guo, J. and Liu, X. (2008) Urbanization effects on observed surface air temperature trends in north China. Journal of Climate 21: 1333-1348, has now shown conclusively that the IPCC's claim that the UHI is negligible is false. Ren et al did the obvious thing to check for the UHI effect: compare trends from rural stations with those from urban ones. They found that the trend (degrees C per decade) was 0.18 for rural stations, 0.25 in small cities and 0.34 in large cities, with an overall trend of 0.29. They estimate that the UHI effect is responsible for a trend of about 0.11 degrees per decade in China; that is almost 20 times as great as the IPCC's claim.


oops!

[roo_ster]

Nitrogen:

I wouldn't take Briffa, Jones, and Mann at face value.  Their data sets, when portions of them are made public, don't withstand scrutiny.  Neither does their methodology.  The Jones & Mann hockey stick chart has been shown to be hinkey^2. 

I won't reply the entire CRU data dump and I won't rehash the posts I have made over time WRT data, methodology, and transparency in my profession.  I will, however, write that if I did what Briffa, Jones, Mann, etc. did and presented it to a customer, I'd be lucky if I were only fired.

[Tallpine]

It's quite a coincidence that we are going on the third cool and wet summer in a row in Montana.  Last winter was long and cold.

I don't think that it's been over 95 yet here this summer.

Raining here the last couple days; it feels like summer is over already.

[MechAg94]

We haven't had too many really hot weeks down here on the Gulf Coast.  We've had a lot of rain and clouds come in due to various tropical storm activity and such.  Nothing to do with any trends.  It is still hot and humid like most summers. 

[MicroBalrog]

Help me here, how do we know how warm it was in 1200 AD correct to one-tenth of a degree?

[HankB]

Help me here, how do we know how warm it was in 1200 AD correct to one-tenth of a degree?

One method is to evaluate tree ring data and compare it to tree ring data from modern times from when we have a good corresponding record of temperature data.

When the ancient tree ring data doesn't produce the results we want, we apply a correction factor to make it fit.

[makattak]

One method is to evaluate tree ring data and compare it to tree ring data from modern times from when we have a good corresponding record of temperature data.

When the ancient tree ring data doesn't produce the results we want, we apply a correction factor to make it fit.

Actually, no. That's not how it's done.

We compare it to modern data because we believe there is a correlation and throw out the modern tree ring data when it no longer correlates to observed temperatures.

[Iain]

Nope, we all get together in a giant conspiracy to steal your SUV.

Then we point out that discussion of cold in Argentina in 2010 is as meaningless as discussing record highs in 17 other countries in 2010:

Record temperatures in 2010:

Belarus, 7 August, 38.9C (102F) at Gomel
Ukraine, 1 August, 41.3C (106.3F), Lukhansk, Voznesensk
Cyprus, 1 August, 46.6C (115.9F), Lefconica
Finland, 29 July, 37.2C (99F), Joensuu
Qatar, 14 July, 50.4C (122.7F), Doha airport
Russia, 11 July, 44.0C (111.2F), Yashkul
Sudan, 25 June, 49.6C (121.3F), Dongola
Niger, 22 June, 47.1C (116.8F), Bilma
Saudi Arabia, 22 June, 52.0C (125.6F), Jeddah
Chad, 22 June, 47.6C (117.7F), Faya
Kuwait, 15 June, 52.6C (126.7F), Abdaly
Iraq, 14 June, 52.0C (125.6F), Basra
Pakistan, 26 May, 53.5C (128.3F), Mohenjo-daro
Burma, 12 May, 47C (116.6F), Myinmu
Ascension Island, 25 March, 34.9C (94.8F), Georgetown
Solomon Islands, 1 February, 36.1C (97F), Lata Nendo
Colombia, 24 January, 42.3C (108F), Puerto Salgar

Only one country (not Argentina, but Guinea) has had a cold record.

[HankB]

Record temperatures in 2010:

 . . . Gomel . . . Voznesensk . . . Lefconica . . . Joensuu . . . Doha airport . . . Yashkul . . . Dongola . . . Bilma . . . Jeddah . . . Faya . . . Abdaly . . . Basra . . . Mohenjo-daro . . . Myinmu . . . Georgetown . . .  Lata Nendo . . . Puerto Salgar . . .

Wonder how long some of these places have been keeping accurate records . . . or of they even are now.

[BridgeRunner]

It's been hotter in Mohenjo-daro.