Please note that this post was part of an April Fools Day Experiment. Comments have been turned off. If you wish to comment, please read the thread April Fools, Skepticism, and Climate Change and comment there. The original post follows.

When discussing global climate change, it is necessary to degrade the overly-complex to simple metrics. This is especially true when the conversation involves the lay public. Thus, we often hear scientists exclaim that the global temperature has risen by 1 degree Celsius in the last few years. This is unfortunate because it conceals the details that often are counter-intuitive.

Global Temperature Index

When diagnosing global climate change, a temperature index is often used that is derived from the lower troposphere. This is no coincidence since we live in the lower troposphere, and its temperature is innately important for our survival. However, it is not a good metric for global climate change studies. When carbon dioxide (CO2) is added to our atmosphere, radiative transfer models predict that the temperature in the lower troposphere will increase. However, they also predict that the temperature in the stratosphere will decrease.
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I’m sure most everyone has heard of the upcoming Earth Hour. As I write this, there is just about exactly 3 days to go until the lights go out. The Earth Hour website states that the idea “started with a question: How can we inspire people to take action on climate change?” I’m all for inspiring change, especially when it comes to energy conservation, but this is a horrible idea.

Before I’m skewered, roasted over an open fire, and eaten as a victory dinner after the successful Earth Hour, let me explain. What is going to happen during Earth Hour? For starters, Earth Hour isn’t really an hour at all; it’s at 8PM local time. Why would this be? So that cameras can take pretty pictures of all the lights going off and they can be broadcast on the news. Continue Reading »

I’ve been on the lookout for great surface stations lately. And I think I may have hit the jackpot. This station is situated in lovely St. Lawrence County, New York. The inset is an image taken not far from the actual station, and the image appears to be quite representative of the region. The good news is that this station is already in a list of the best surface stations. I compiled that list by just looking at mesoscale influences. That is, is there any cities or towns nearby that would contribute to the urban heat island.
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In my last post, I stated that I don’t understand the time of observation correction. This was because when I was looking at the metadata, I could find no evidence that the time of observation had changed, even though it was obvious that there was a correction being applied. I decided to double check the metadata against other metadata published online by NCDC. I went to the USHCN FTP site and downloaded a file called “station.history.Z”. From previous experience, I knew that this file was out of date, but I was surprised to learn that it was last updated in November 1995. I didn’t have much choice though, as I don’t know of any other metadata available.

I have selected the metadata from the same surface station as the last post; namely State University, MS - COOP ID 228374. I excluded some of the unnecessary bits to make it a little easier to decode.
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