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Update Update

In the last post I graphed the average temperature for 2015 so far with the annual averages prior to that. It’s certainly not the clearest way to show things, and someone who doesn’t read the text and pay close attention could get the wrong impression. It was also pointed out that there may be seasonal differences in the way temperature has changed; maybe January through April has behaved differently than other times of the year. Finally, the inherent scatter in a 4-month average is bound to be higher than that in an annual average.

In an attempt to present things more clearly, here are a few more views of where we are. We’ll begin with year-long averages for all the data points, but to include the most recent data let’s end each year with April. Here is the average temperature for each May-through-April period since 1880:

Temperature Data Update

Since last year was the hottest on record, many people have trained a keen eye on this year’s temperature data so see how it will compare with last year’s record-breaker.

So far, it’s a hot one indeed. How hot? NASA has just released the global temperature data for April, and although we only have four months of data for the year so far, some of the folks at home are wondering how this-year-so-far compares to previous years’ temperatures. Here you are:

Catch 22. No.1.

From time to time the boys at WUWT and elsewhere, rather than dole nonsense in bite-size morsels, are so kind as to serve up a compendium, a cornucopia if you will. I know they truly want to persuade people that man-made global warming is no problemo, but I wonder whether they’re quite aware of what they’re doing; this kind of bounty doesn’t do their image much good.

In a recent post, Jean-Pierre Bardinet outlines what he refers to as “22 Very Inconvenient Climate Truths,” which he subtitles “Here are 22 good reasons not to believe the statements made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).”

Florida Sea Level

Since I am not an employee of the Florida state government under their science-denying governor Rick Scott, I’m allowed to say the following phrases: “climate change” and “global warming.”

I’m also able to mention those topics when discussing sea level rise. In the hope that I can annoy Florida’s science-denying governor Rick Scott by flying in the face of his denial of science itself, I’ll print the truth for all Floridians (and others) to see: sea level rise is being caused by man-made climate change, also known as global warming.

Hot Water

Barton Bibler, who works for Florida’s DEP (Department of Environmental Protection), actually spoke about climate change at an official meeting. He even (gasp!) kept notes of the discussion in official minutes.

Slowdown Skeptic

I’m skeptical. In particular, about this idea that the rate of global warming at Earth’s surface has recently exhibited a slowdown.

Graphs by the Dozen

Quite a bit of attention was paid to the fact that in the global temperature data from NASA, and from NOAA, the year 2014 turned out to be the hottest on record. Even more attention ensued because so far this year has also been rather toasty world-wide, so much so that by February we set new record highs for average temperature over a 12-month period (sometimes called 12-month running means). Simply put, March 2014 through February 2015 was the hottest 12-month period on record in both NASA and NOAA data. Then when the numbers arrived for March of this year, it turns out we topped even that record; April 2014 through March 2015 became the new hottest 12-month period on record, for both NASA and NOAA data; here’s the NASA version (click the graph for a larger, clearer view):

Oklahoma: Not OK

Oklahoma is not OK.

Stupid is as Ted Cruz does

Ted Cruz denies that global warming is even happening.

Appearing on “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” Cruz had this to say:

Many of the alarmists on global warming, they’ve got a problem because the science doesn’t back them up. In particular, satellite data demonstrate for the last 17 years, there’s been zero warming.”

— Ted Cruz on Tuesday, March 17th, 2015 in an interview on “Late Night with Seth Meyers”

Cruz was criticized by California governor Jerry Brown for denying scientific reality. On Sunday Cruz said that “global warming alarmists” like Brown “ridicule and insult anyone who actually looks at the real data.”

Let’s look at the real data.