Global Warming News - August 2008

Real News Stories To Share With Global-Warming Skeptics

United States:
In the mid-Atlantic states, it was an August to remember. Typically, August weather averages in the mid- to high-90s, with occasional days above 100F. The heat and moisture in the soupy air generally produce a steady stream of thunder storms that can be counted upon to arrive almost every evening. The three H's (hot, hazy, humid) normally prevail. This year however, August was one for the books, with its succession of warm sunny days, low humidity and high, blue skies almost every day. And generally cool temperatures at night allowed most of us to keep our air-conditioners turned off. A certain Mr. Eye from "Downtown, NJ" can personally attest to the remarkable weather.

Martha's Vineyard experienced a "very cool" August. The average temperature for the month was 76F, three degrees below the five-year average. Only eight days saw temperatures reach 80F, the hottest being 84F on August 1, compared with 15 days at 80F or above last year. In 2006, August had 16 days when temperatures reached above 80F, five of which were above 90F. The following chart shows provides a graphic representation of the data. NOTE: The data for 2004 appears to be shown incorrectly.


Martha's Vineyard temp data (Click to enlarge).

In Maryland, Sun reporter Frank Roylance called it September weather in August. He said, it's "hard to imagine nicer weather than this - unless it's the dry, sunny, pleasant weather typical of late September or early October." He quoted a National Weather Service meteorologist as saying he "needed to check the calendar to make sure it's really August." Morning temps dipped into the upper 50s in Cockeysville, and it was only 56F in Martinsburg, West Virginia. The high temp on August 11th was only 80F, well below the long-term average high for the date of 86F.

In Oklahoma, John D. Montgomery at The Purcell Register described it as a wet, cool August. "Instead of looking parched and dead, yards in Purcell look like it's May and the temperatures are amazing," he said.

Similarly, the Rome News-Tribune in Georgia reported that the month was "one of the coolest Augusts" (without any further explanation). Usually known for its so-called "dog days" in the South - days so hot, as people like to joke, you can fry an egg on the sidewalk - this year August was different. "There weren’t any omelet makers busy in Floyd County this past month", a reporter quipped. By comparison to last year, this past August "was a month in paradise". According to the Georgia Automated Environmental Monitoring Network, which records temperature at the Northwest Georgia Experiment Station, seventeen of the month’s 31 days had highs below 90 degrees, and there were no days with highs above 100 degrees.

In Washington State, staff writer K.C. Mehaffey at the Wenatchee World mused that "Some like it hot, and they were likely disappointed this summer." But for others, she said, "this will go down as one of the most pleasant summers in North Central Washington in recent memory." There were only 25 days in June, July or August when thermometers in Wenatchee hit 90 degrees or more, making it one of the coolest summers on record, according to the National Weather Service in Spokane. It was the coolest summer in 15 years, since 1993 when there were only 23 days above 90. There were some cool days in August that didn't make it out of the 70s. Three of the last six years — 2003, 2004 and 2006 — all had more than 40 days at 90 degrees or above in Wenatchee. Greg Koch, Weather Service meteorologist in Spokane said, "On the whole, the weather pattern over the western two-thirds of the United States has not seen the big, warm upper-level ridge that it has experienced for many summers."

In Iowa, the cooler weather helped crops get through a dry spell. Precipitation for August averaged only 2.01 inches, according to preliminary statistics. It was the driest summer month since August 2003. However, the impact of the dry conditions on crops was muted by cooler than normal temperatures. The average temperature for August was four degrees cooler than during the near-record dry period of August 2003.

Australia:
Brisbane was hit by its coldest August in at least 8 years, weather consultants Weatherzone says. The city recorded an average minimum of 9C and an average maximum of 22C, slightly down on the long-term normal temperature for the month of 23C, said Weatherzone meteorologist Matt Pearce. "This made it the coolest August in terms of daytime temperatures since records began at the current site in 2000," Mr Pearce said. On August 12th, the mercury plunged to just 4C, the coldest August night in eight years of records.


Snow at Mount Hotham - Aug 22.
Perth recorded its coldest August in about 15 years in a month when several long standing weather records were broken in Western Australia (WA). Meanwhile, a reading of -7.2C at the Eyre weather station, near Cocklebiddy, on August 17th broke a 39-year-old record as the lowest ever recorded in WA. The previous low was -6.7C at Booylgoo Spring in the Southeast Gascoyne in July 1969. Perth's average minimum temperature of 6C, two degrees below average, made for the coldest August in terms of overnight temperatures since 1994. The morning of August 18th saw the mercury plunge to just 2C, the coldest August night in three years. Katanning had an average minimum of 3C, its lowest for August in 113 years of records.

Adelaide endured its coldest August for more than 30 years, according to a forecasting group. The city recorded an average maximum of 15C in August, below the long-term normal of 17 and making it the coldest August since 1977. "South-east Australia has been in the grips of a very cold airmass for much of August," said Weatherzone meteorologist Matt Pearce. "Strong cold fronts have been pushing up from the Southern Ocean, sending temperatures plummeting. This is a far cry from August of last year, when Adelaide had already experienced its first 30-degree day of the season by the end of the month."

A record-breaking cold snap brought cold temperatures and snow to Victoria just days before spring was set to begin. Temperatures on August 21st fell as much as six degrees below average, with the temperature in Melbourne staying in single figures for the first time in 13 months. At only 9.9C, it was Melbourne's coldest August day in four years and second coldest in 30 years. Melbourne Airport reached only eight degrees, their coldest day in over 10 years and coldest in August for 38 years. The weather is great news for skiers with snowfalls extending the life of the season. A spokeswoman for Mount Hotham, which received 18 centimetres of snow, said the resort was looking forward to good conditions until the end of season. Mount Buller's season was officially extended until October 5th.


Snowboarding in Australia - Aug 22.
Sydney shivered through its coldest August in 64 years. With official monthly figures soon to be released, meteorologists said Sydney was likely to clock an average temperature of 12.7C, the lowest since World War II. Some suburbs experienced their chilliest August on record including Canterbury, Homebush, Penrith, and Richmond - all which started keeping records 12 years ago, along with Bankstown, Parramatta and Prospect Dam, which began keeping records 37 years ago. "They broke minimum temperature records," Weatherzone meteorologist Matt Pearce said.

Scientific Opinion:

Shiplogs Cast Doubt on Man-Made Global Warming: Some people believe that the recent increase in tropical storms and hurricanes is the result of man-made global warming. However, scientists have uncovered a treasure trove of meteorological information contained in the detailed logs of seafarers like Lord Nelson and Captain Cook which cast doubt on that view.


Seafarers kept accurate weather logs.
Every Royal Naval ship kept a detailed record of climate including air pressure, wind strength, air and sea temperature and major meteorological disturbances. A group of academics and Met Office scientists has unearthed the records dating from the 1600s and examined more than 6,000 logs, which have provided one of the world's best sources for long-term weather data.

A paper by Dr. Dennis Wheeler, a geographer based at Sunderland University, recounts an increasing number of summer storms over Britain in the late 17th century. These storms came during the so-called Little Ice Age that affected Europe from about 1600 to 1850. The records also suggest that Europe saw a spell of rapid warming, similar to that experienced today, during the 1730s. That rapid warming must have been caused naturally, and not by man-made emissions of CO2.

British archives contain more than 100,000 Royal Navy logbooks from around 1670 to 1850 alone. They are a stunning resource... (Their accuracy and consistency) means we can deduce numerical values for wind strength and direction, temperature and rainfall... Global warming is a reality, but what our data shows is that climate science is complex. It is wrong to take particular events and link them to carbon dioxide emissions. --Dennis Wheeler, Captains’ Logs Yield Climate Clues, August 4, 2008

Wheeler's research will be published in the journal Climatic Change.

Cooling Trend Observed: Statistician Joe Tritz at Digital Diatribes has been keeping track of the data coming out of the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). He has been using the data to develop temperature projections based on various modeling schemes. As one might expect, the long-term trend of the raw temperature data shows global warming. However, as the time frame becomes shorter and more recent, notice that the slope of the temperature rise becomes flatter and then downward. The following charts are from a graphic presentation he put together...


Long-term temperature trend (Click to enlarge).


Ten year temperature trend (Click to enlarge).


Cooling trend (Click to enlarge).


Five year temperature trend (Click to enlarge).

The following chart shows a projection Tritz developed based on the current 60-month temperature data...


Projection of 60-month trend (Click to enlarge).

The final chart shows the long-term average of 60-month cycle trends...


Long-term 60-month cycle trend (Click to enlarge).

Political Opinion:

Senator Ron Boswell, a prominent leader of the National Party in Australia, expressed criticism towards the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the world's largest independent conservation organization. He pointed to WWF's sudden change of focus from global warming to global cooling, and said it demonstrates the lack of substance to the argument that manmade carbon emissions are responsible for global warming. "The WWF now claims that recent freezing temperatures in Sydney are proof of the urgent need to cut carbon pollution", said Boswell. He continued somewhat sarcastically...

Does that mean that global warming causes global cooling? Does that mean that we should be increasing emissions in order to cool the earth or increasing them to warm it back up? I thought we were concerned with the perils of global warming – that we had to act immediately to stop temperatures and water levels rising and inflicting untold disasters. Now the WWF wants us to believe that manmade carbon emissions are responsible for colder temperatures. Which is it – are temperatures going up or down? Cooling temperatures are what I would call a very inconvenient truth for the green movement. This is a twisting charade and no mistake. --Senator Ron Boswell, Global Cooling? An Inconvenient Truth, Sept. 2, 2008

Senator Boswell says it is imperative that scientists get it right because so many of Australia’s competitive industries are being asked to take on higher costs under the government’s carbon reduction scheme.