How Warm Is It Really?
Once in a while we notice something which even the most ardent climate change advocate should really question.
We all know that the world is currently warming, as a result of human activities, right? Well, maybe not. Maybe the world is not warming at all? Anthony Watt, a former meteorologist uncovers an important issue with the way in which temperatures are actually measured.
The picture below is that of a temperature station in Lampassas, Texas. This station (circled) forms part of the USHCN and GISS database on global temperatures, making it a part of the official climate record.
The problems with this station should be obvious - it is surrounded by asphalt, and close to buildings, parked cars, and air conditioning units - all of which radiate heat. Warming recorded by this station, therefore, is a result of additional human heat sources, not planetary warming.
Unfortunately this is not an isolated incidence of suspect data collection. Many temperature stations are run by volunteers, and control over their placement is limited. Climate researchers use complex statistical models in order to isolate warming caused by extraneous heat sources, although an analysis of this data by Watt shows that no adjustment has been made for this station since it was moved to its current position six years ago, despite a sudden spike in temperature being recorded.
Should we be worried?
If this is really the standard of climate science, upon the outcome of which trillions of dollars may be spent, then we should be worried. In 100 years from now, future generations may look back on our mad scramble to decarbonize our economy and pity us for our ignorance – it wouldn’t be the first time in history..



Should I save the AGW proponents some time.
“one station does not invalidate them all, you are cherry picking”
“all temperatures are filtered and adjusted for UHI effects”
“The US is only one small part of global temperature”
Did I miss any?
Now the answers…
While one station is used for an example repeated calls for site auditing and testing of recording equipment has fallen on deaf ears. Data is only as accurate as the equipment that collects it and no amount of data massaging can remove the simple fact that the site placements have not been fully audited nor is there a standardized normalization of data sets.
While many changes were adopted to compensate for UHI effects, unlit urban sites only used, missing data is pulled from surrounding stations, etc. No matter what researchers say these practices hugely effect the overall output of the data and are not standardized across the research communities.
While the US is a small portion of the world temperature record it is the part with the highest resolution by sheer numbers of sites. Yet it would be irresponsible to assume the US network is the only one effected by site placements and data collection methodologies. Surface temperature records should be consistent and globally complete, they are not.
Researchers use a phrase that is very important here “statistically insignificant” when answering these charges about the data, this is the same phrase used by the “denier” community to describe the temperature variation of the last 8 years, the variation is statistically insignificant. While eight years does not indicate a long term trend the fact that the official record uses a 5 year trend is, you will notice that the five year trend has flatlined since 2004.
All this as CO2 concentration continues to grow at faster and faster rates.
The answer from the scientists now is NATURAL VARIABILITY. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?