It's taking me a while to get back to blogging and there's a lot happening in the world to distract. I couldn't help but notice there is a lot of extreme weather around the world, the terrible floods in Japan, for example. If you're wondering how these examples of climate change are affecting climate science deniers, it's making them even loopier than normal.Airport UHI disease breakout in Africa
Over at WUWT, Anthony Watts found another airport that had a sudden attack of airport UHI disease. You'll remember how there was an outbreak in Greenland back in 2013. This horrible disease only strikes on very hot days, apparently. Not even that. It only strikes on the very hottest of days according to Anthony's research. He said he his amazing finding was "based on hours of combing Google Earth and other sources". Yes, he really did spend "hours" trying to figure out a reason to discount a temperature reading for a weather station in Africa. He decided that on the particular day of the very high weather reading, possibly a record high reading, the weather station decided to act up.
Once again he didn't explain just how it acted up so much more than on any other day, why on this particular day the higher reading couldn't possibly have been higher than the reading taken on another day. He put it down to aeroplanes. He didn't show that there was an aeroplane anywhere near the weather station that day. Nor did he show that there has never been another day without an aeroplane at that airport. He just decided that for some inexplicable reason, the weather station cannot possibly have measured the temperature properly but just on that particular day.
Weird, huh?
Irrational and angry in the Californian heat
Well, if you think that was weird, how about this.
Anthony lives in California so you'd think he'd have been able to feel the heat of the past few days, and seen that there are awful fires raging. You'd think he could garner some sympathy for his southern neighbours. But no. He's decided it wasn't real and that the weather stations in California must have been playing up.
Now any sane, rational person would know that even if a weather station is not placed in an ideal location, it's reasonable to compare one reading with another from the same weather station. Not according to Anthony.
By his reckoning, if a thermometer measures a reading on one day that's hotter or colder than that measured by the same instrument on another day, one cannot say that the hotter (or colder) reading meant that it was actually hotter (or colder).
Tell that to your oven thermometer, or your fridge thermometer :)
That's not the worst of it. The weather has really gotten to poor heat-struck Anthony Watts. He became a tad angry with Nick Stokes for pointing out something similar. This is what happened when Nick Stokes pointed out that Anthony's chosen thermometers aren't used for climate monitoring purposes:
Climate science is not involved here. This is a newspaper, in its local section, telling people about the daily temperature records at their local station. People read thermometers long before climate science was a thing.
Nick is correct and Anthony is spouting nonsense, of course (in case there's a lurker here who has trouble figuring out what's what.)
There's more, showing how deniers are extremely intolerant of extreme heat. Nick Stokes pointed out that it's quite valid for a reading to be compared to another reading from the same instrument in the same location:
“The all time record high temperatures for Los Angeles “
Was there a claim of an all-time record there (this year). The LA Times article listed a number of daily records for various stations. But I don’t see how that could be disqualified. Stations seem to have a daily record for every day of the year. If you disqualify this one, why would the last one be better? It seems to me that if stations are reporting temperatures, somewhere there will be a maximum that people will note, and I don’t see how that can be prevented.
Was there a claim of an all-time record there (this year). The LA Times article listed a number of daily records for various stations. But I don’t see how that could be disqualified. Stations seem to have a daily record for every day of the year. If you disqualify this one, why would the last one be better? It seems to me that if stations are reporting temperatures, somewhere there will be a maximum that people will note, and I don’t see how that can be prevented.
Just "shut up, really". That's the best that Anthony can come up with when the obvious is pointed out to him. He doesn't want anyone being rational on his blog.
Perhaps because it only got to 95 F on Sunday where Anthony lives, he can't envisage a place nearby where the temperature reached 117 F.
I really only look at WUWT in the hope of seeing a Nick Stokes comment. He is the calm eye in the storm of confusion and bigotry. I don't know why he bothers really. They should be grateful to have him.
ReplyDeleteOften I am confused myself until he clears it up in a few words.
I imagine Watts's vicious response is because Nick has hit the mark again.
Nick was 4 years ahead of me in school and college and he was regarded as something of a genius. (He would certainly be too modest to accept that).
I do about the same. If I do ever check WUWT or Climate Etc., I normally look first for Nick's comments.
Deleteits all down to temperature - uk has been 28°C+(!!) for weeks. I can feel my temper shortening!! usually one simply shrugs shoulders and get on with life. Now i wish to lash out verbally. So watts' irrational comments are perhaps understandable!.
ReplyDeletewatts in the past has allowed really noxious comments (death wishes - eg. https://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/05/04/question-for-catlin-arctic-survey-what-happens-to-the-fuel-drums/#comment-115652)
Then bans people who simply disagree with him.
The anger of spencer of Alabama = hot is also not to be trifled with:
stavro mueller says:
June 2, 2017 at 6:18 AM
Salvatore Del Prete says: June 2, 2017 at 5:50 AM
Trump you did the right thing ! Excellent president the best we have ever had.
————
Really?
few other leaders have been made the ultimate laughing stock of the rest of the world.
Even Bush and Regan were more respected
Reply
Roy W. Spencer, Ph. D. says:
June 2, 2017 at 8:43 AM
I don’t care if we are a laughingstock to a bunch of countries whose claim to fame is artists and musicians who died hundreds of years ago. Some of us laugh at you, too. Your countries are slowly dying, culturally and economically.
Good luck.
!!!!
It is
Though a veteran of reading "climate-o-sphere" comments, I have to say that comment from Spencer, as a prominent "skeptic" scientist, is quite remarkable.
DeleteAside from the bizarre description regarding "claim to fame," the naked admission of laughing at the perceived economic and cultural deaths of our closest allies is rather stark. I might have assumed such sentiment from many WUWT regulars, but probably not of Spencer... and I certainly wouldn't have predicted such an open admission. Even if held, I would have thought such sentiments would remain discrete, even at a cesspool like WUWT.
But then again, I would have predicted that a man who brags about grabbing pussies would not be elected president, let alone be wildly popular with evangelicals.
I keep finding I have to recalculate my basic understanding of normal behavior
It is a puzzle to me why scientists such as Dr Spencer are anti-science. But if that quote is accurate then it could explain a number of things. Some academics so hate the Environmental movement that they will compromise their own career and science to prevent something Environmentalist's support from affecting policy. It seems a "the end justifies the means" attitude applies here.
DeleteProbably as a result of heat-induced crankiness, declining readership, and projection about his own cognitive biases, Watts seems to have finally lost his mind over the astonishingly patient, polite and knowledgeable Nick Stokes.
ReplyDelete"You aren’t an honest researcher. Your own bias blinds you."
ReplyDeleteOh Willard, that applies to you and not to Nick Stokes.
You nailed it Sou, as usual.
ReplyDeleteLet us accept, for the purpose of argument, Watts' premise: that some measurement stations are compromised and read warmer than the actual climatic reality.
So we get a slew of new hot records. On planet Watts, for some unexplained and unexplored reason the warm bias has dialled itself up a notch, simultaneously in a particular region. Rather than the far more plausible explanation that the climate is warming and all stations, whether biased or pristine, are reflecting this simple reality.
One can understand , if not quite sympsthise with, Watts' increasing exasperation with Nick Stokes for repeatedly puncturing his basic belief bubble with patience, facts, logic and evidence.
Luckily for Watts the internet gets scrubbed every month, otherwise his embarassing commitment to partisan propaganda would be available for future historians to study indefinitely.
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ReplyDeleteWatts is the Village Idiot, that is for sure. His dog could run that site better.
ReplyDeleteEvery time I go there and I start to read a blog post title, about half way through those specific titles I go "This must be a Tim Ball post." So I stop reading the title, look for the author and sure enough it is a Tim Ball post.
I'm like 100% accurate for the past three months or so, it is creepy and eerie at the same time.
Nah, his post titles are so bland and generic and have no direction, like this one ...
"Appeasement in the Bizarre World of Climate, Politics, and Big Oil"
or this one ...
"Previous Identification of Groupthink: Part of Why the Public Doesn't Believe in Global Warming"
or this one ...
"The Extent of Global Warming Deception and the Damage is Not Hyperbole"
or this one ...
"A Climate History Lesson: Extremism of Stories Like ‘Bomb Cyclone’ is a Good Thing"
or this one ...
"Collapse of Global Warming Deception Triggers Variety of Bailouts and Revisionism"
or this one ...
"What Happened to the Armchair Environmentalists and Climate Alarmists When the Hurricanes Hit?"
or this one ...
"Climate Models Can't Even Approximate Reality Because Atmospheric Structure and Movements are Virtually Unknown"
or thia one ...
"Evolutionary and Global Warming Theory: Predictable Responses with No Empirical Evidence"
or this one ...
"Distortions, Misdirections, and Lack of Accountability Continue to Plague Climate Science"
or this one ...
"The Science and Climate Ignorance of Society Needs Correcting, But How? Some Thoughts"
or this one ...
"Eco-Imperialism in North America and the World"
or this one ...
"Getting the Public's Attention on Global Warming: The Final Challenge"
Rubber room titles.
https://moyhu.blogspot.com/2018/07/wuwt-and-heat-records.html
ReplyDeleteThe latest sale of snake-oil by Monckton on WU has no comments by Nick Stokes. That is unusual as he always pulls his bollocks apart. I'm wondering if the "I’m really done with you. Go away" has anything to do with it.
ReplyDeleteTony,
DeleteI seem to be OK again there. Just a bit weary of Lord M.
Glad to hear it Nick - your rebuttals are the main reason I go there.
DeleteI know what you mean about Monckton - he is as slippery and devious as the said snake and oil.
Your tolerance of that hypocrite Watts would be beyond most .....
"You aren’t an honest researcher. Your own bias blinds you." He says from the bottom of the rabbit-hole, in blissful ignorance of the staggering irony.
https://moyhu.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteWatts calling Nick Stokes a troll. If you know Watts, you know he will do that sooner or later to anyone who disagrees with him. Watts will usually just block someone who disagrees with him, but Nick Stokes is well-known and popular.
ReplyDeleteiirc. a similar report from Watts claimed that a warming Antarctica was due to a thermometer in a camp that was used by scientists to decide whether to put on an extra pair of undies.
ReplyDeleteAh the integrity of Anthony Watts, still banging on about a handful of poorly-sited weather stations.
ReplyDeleteLatest is an oldie but goldie - the station at Ciampino airport in Rome, [GHCN ref 62316239000] which, from the photo, may (currently) have some issues.
What you will not learn from the slippery propagandist is that GCHN has not included data from this station since 1970, and during the short period it was included in GHCN (and therefore GISTEMP) it recorded a cooling trend.
Myth:busted.
(I think we should organise some kind of blog-medal for Nick Stokes)
Recording an all time heat record for a great metropolis like Los Angeles might seem a crowning achievement for a local meteorologist, but instead of embracing a record set in his own back yard, -as the doyen of Chico's KHSL-TV weathermen, Watts could have gone viral with the announcement, he devoted the great day to denying it ever happened.
ReplyDeleteNot to be outdone, one of his moderators has elected not to notice the palaeolimatic fallout from one of the most conspicuous British droughts since the Bronze Age.
He also seems to be more than willing to ignore the record heatwaves occurring all over the high arctic this summer.
DeleteA summary, if I may.
ReplyDelete- Climate scientists predict that heatwaves will become more common due to AGW.
- A (pretty much) global heatwave occurs
- Denialists deny that this has anything to do with AGW
Did I miss anything?
I think you missed out "The general public - deniers for how they live their high carbon lives - carry on with business as usual
DeleteApparently one third of the Meterological stations in Portugal set new records on Saturday.
ReplyDeleteI never knew there were so many airports in that country... ;-)
https://www.theguardian.com/weather/2018/aug/04/europe-heatwave-portugal-spain-extreme-temperatures
The UK Met Office (I think) said temps in the Iberian Peninsular could get to 48C which didn't actually happen - one reason why making extreme weather forecasts is dodgy in the "heart and minds" business.
DeleteFrom what I have seen the European heat wave, while not really breaking major records, was very widespread which is unusual. It will be interesting to see the July/August global figures when they come out.