Watts Up With That?

I recently discussed the ridiculous claims from Anthony Watts in a post at his WUWT blog, based on comments from Ryan Maue. Nonetheless, a reader seems to think he had a point. Specifically, he says this:

NOAA Record Heat for February

It will probably not surprise you that global temperature according to NOAA agrees with that from NASA, that February set a new record for the hottest monthly temperature anomaly on record.

One Sentence, So Many Mistakes

Anthony Watts has a post at WUWT which illustrates beautifully just how disconnected he and his followers are from reality.

Surprise, but not Shock

The extremity of global temperature anomaly in February this year has shocked some people:

Record-breaking heat AGAIN

NASA has released the global temperature estimate for February of 2016. It’s a new record for the hottest monthly anomaly yet.

The red dot at the end marks the latest monthly value.

Surface or Satellite?

Global Warming Basics: What Has Changed?

I started the “Global Warming Basics” posts specifically to help people who are interested in what’s going on, wondering whether we should do something about it and what, but want to keep things simple. My purpose isn’t to turn you into a scientist — it’s just to give you enough information to make sense out of what you hear about the subject. Alas, that can be all too difficult, because so many people, and politicians, are willing to distort the truth.

Perhaps the most basic question for a lot of people is “What has changed?” Has climate changed already? In what way? What have we seen in the last few decades that concerns us? What did we see last year? Last month? What’s been going on, really?

Let’s take a look.

Lamar Smith Distorts Research

I (and others) happen to disagree with the conclusions of Fyfe et al., one of its authors being distinguished climate scientist Mike Mann. If scientists didn’t disagree, progress would be much more difficult. When we disagree with respect and politeness, everybody benefits.

There are of course a great many things we happen to agree on, one of which is that some people are exploiting their research, not representing it honestly, in order to promote an agenda.

One such is congressman Lamar Smith. Mike Mann recently penned this open letter to Smith:

Dear Congressman Lamar Smith,

Please don’t misrepresent (http://dailysignal.com/2016/02/26/the-inconvenient-facts-the-media-ignores-about-climate-change/) our recent Nature Climate Change commentary (http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v6/n3/full/nclimate2938.html).

Our study does NOT support the notion of a “pause” in global warming, only a *temporary slowdown*, which was due to natural factors, and has now ended.

Our recent work (http://www.nature.com/articles/srep19831), which you fail to cite, indicates that the record warmth we are now experiencing can only be explained by human-caused global warming.

Michael E. Mann
Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA
16827

Well said.

Scientists will continue to disagree, as the battle of ideas moves us further along the path to truth. Unfortunately, political opportunists like Lamar Smith not only obstruct climate action when it’s most needed, they make it next to impossible for the voting public to know what it is that we disagree about. Of this you can be sure: it’s not what Lamar Smith claims.

New Dataset from RSS: End of the Satellite “Pause”?

Carl Mears and team at RSS have published a new paper describing a revision of their data for atmospheric temperature. The focus is on improving the “diurnal correction,” which is necessary because different regions of Earth are observed at different times of day. The upshot is that the lower atmosphere has warmed faster than was previously believed.

Leo!

Start at the 1:55 mark: