Back very soon...

This is just to let you know that HotWhopper will be active again very soon now. I wrote a while back how other commitments have dominated, and I didn't expect to be writing much before June. That's still the case.

There is lots to catch up on. The deniosphere hasn't come up with anything original. In fact it's getting antsy about Donald Trump. Some people are moaning that he's not yet got out of the Paris Agreement. Others are already making excuses for him not doing so. That sort of behaviour is par for the course with Trump fans and science deniers.

Anthony Watts himself has had to fill his blog with the usual misrepresentations and articles from hard core conspiracy nutters. He's still not writing much himself. I don't know that he ever will again. He doesn't enjoy the ridicule. (Anthony shares many of the characteristics of Donald Trump, who isn't game enough to let his staff hold press conferences much these days, let alone hold any himself.)

Anyway, I'll tweet and Facebook when HotWhopper returns full time. Feel free to request any topic, though no promises of fulfilling any particular request :)

PS Until I return moderation is on. That means it might take a short while for comments to be published. Thanks for your patience.

Second hottest April on record

According to GISS NASA, the average global surface temperature anomaly for April was 0.88 °C, which is 0.18 °C lower than the hottest April in 2016, making April 2017 the second hottest April in the record.

Here is a chart of the average of 12 months to April each year. The 12 months to April 2017 averaged 0.91 °C above the 1951-1980 mean, which was 0.07 °C cooler than the 12 months to April 2016,. This makes it the second hottest April to April 12 month period on record.

Figure 1 | Global mean surface temperature anomaly for the 12 months to April each year. The base period is 1951-1980. Data source: GISS NASA