From Watts Up With That?

Anyone who follows the climate debate closely, would have heard the recent announcement that July 3 and 4 were allegedly the ‘hottest days ever’. This claim, it seems, is as solid as quicksand, built on a shaky foundation of guesswork and political objectives.

The Untrustworthy Tapestry of Temperature Measurement

As Steve Milloy astutely highlights in his recent Wall Street Journal article, “Hottest Days Ever? Don’t Believe It,” the recorded average global temperature of 62.6 degrees Fahrenheit for these dates was derived from the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer. As Milloy notes, this system “relies on a mix of satellite temperature data and computer-model guesstimation to calculate estimates of temperature.”

In the realm of scientific research, ‘guesstimation’ is hardly a term that inspires confidence. As Milloy succinctly puts it,

“there are no satellite data from 125,000 years ago. Calculated estimates of current temperatures can’t be fairly compared with guesses of global temperature from thousands of years ago.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/hottest-days-ever-dont-believe-it-global-temperature-north-sole-poles-6e64a991?mod=opinion_major_pos4#comments_sector

The Misleading Mirage of ‘Average Global Temperature’Furthermore, Milloy debunks the fallacy of ‘average global temperature’. He states,

“Average global temperature is a concept invented by and for the global-warming hypothesis. It is more a political concept than a scientific one.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/hottest-days-ever-dont-believe-it-global-temperature-north-sole-poles-6e64a991?mod=opinion_major_pos4#comments_sector

Seasonal changes and regional disparities, as Milloy points out, severely compromise the concept of a singular ‘global temperature.’ For instance, temperatures rise during the Northern Hemisphere’s summer due to increased land exposure to sunlight, a fact conveniently overlooked by the climate alarmist contingent.

The Blind Spots and Blur in Climate Data

The issue of precision (or rather, the lack thereof) in temperature data is another issue Milloy brings to the fore.

 An alarming 96% of U.S. temperature stations reportedly produce corrupted data, and about 92% of them have a margin of error of nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit.

 So, next time you hear about a 1-degree rise in global temperatures, remember that the margin of error itself exceeds the supposed increase!Our friends at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration present global temperatures starting from 1880, but regular temperature collection in remote regions like the north and south poles came much later. Can we really make meaningful and accurate comparisons when we’ve been effectively blindfolded for a significant portion of our observational timeline?

The Dilemma of Characterizing Earth’s Warming

As Milloy so eloquently sums up,

“It isn’t plausible to characterize Earth’s warming in a single average number, especially when we don’t really know what that number is today, much less from 125,000 years ago.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/hottest-days-ever-dont-believe-it-global-temperature-north-sole-poles-6e64a991?mod=opinion_major_pos4#comments_sector

This, ladies and gentlemen, hits the nail right on the head.

So, the next time you hear the phrase ‘hottest day ever,’ remember to take it with a pinch of salt. Perhaps even a bucketful. After all, a touch of skepticism in the face of potentially misleading data can go a long way in keeping us grounded to the realities of our complex and ever-changing climate.

What’s your take on the ‘hottest days ever’ and the average global temperature controversy? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.