George Lee is confused, or, attempting to mislead.

dense

Here's a question, shouldn't the Environment Correspondent at our public service broadcaster be able to understand what a record breaking temperature is?

I would think yes is the answer.

George, (or maybe his editor) doesn't.

Or, they do, but have some agenda and need to bend facts to fit it.

Record-breaking week for sun and heat in Ireland

https://www.rte.ie/news/analysis-and-comment/2018/0630/974393-weather-heatwave-ireland/


The fact is that Ireland's highest temperature ever recorded was 33.3°C in 1887 at Kilkenny Castle.

https://mobile.twitter.com/MetEireann/status/1012440940949229568

The fact also is that despite the headline "Record breaking week for sunshine and heat" no temperature records were broken.

So to fit the narrative, George in his article then disparages that earlier era's technical ability to record temperatures accurately with the obvious subtext being that it shouldn't be seen as being reliable.

That was set back in 1887, in Kilkenny during an era when weather stations were a little cruder and contained less rigorous formats and instrumentation than today. The temperature record set on that occasion was 33.3C.

The irony here is that it can be most definitely relied upon when it is being claimed that the the earth has warmed by one degree above pre industrial levels, particularly since those who are leading that claim have not even defined what period "Pre Industrial" refers to, which is handy.

https://www.climate-lab-book.ac.uk/2017/defining-pre-industrial/

-nice bit of goal post shifting in that too

But George won't tell you any of that, but will tell you we've had a week of record breaking heat.

So always take what George says about these things with a pinch of salt.

If in six months time he's on saying it's never been colder, do your own research.

delly

There are more weather related records than just a max temperature.

pleas advice

There's also minimum...

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo

delly wrote: »

There are more weather related records than just a max temperature.

This.

And also I wouldn't trust accurate measurements done by most likely one person at one moment 150 years ago for our maximum high temperature. Our record low temperature is from around 150 years ago too. It shouldn't count in my view.

dense

Interesting replies there.



If the baseline can't be accurately verified, and I'm not sure it can be, not just for that temperature in Kilkenny, (because I doubt that other weather stations had someone signing off witnessing someone else recording the temperature at properly calibrated and sited weather stations two hundred years ago) how can we compare today's claims when you're starting from a dodgy baseline?

The dodgy weather stations theory held by George Lee has been shown to be more than a theory by the US Government Accountability Office, and not under Trump, but Obama.

In 2011 it found that 42% of official US weather stations failed to meet recommended standards, primarily because of siting issues rendering them prone to recording warmer temperatures than had they been correctly sited.

https://www.gao.gov/mobile/products/GAO-11-800


But Met Eireann stands by the Kilkenny 1887 record.

A record that if now being doubted brings the repute of the logic of comparing present temperatures with alleged past tenths of degree temperature measurements into doubt especially when coupled with the lack of interest shown by those talking about a pre industrial baseline to define this pre industrial baseline that they are constantly referring to.


To wrap up, although the US Government Accountability Office found 42% of weather station temperatures were prone to returning artificially warm data, the data it was returning was then adjusted by NASA culminating in it adjusting in a further half degree of warming to the US temperature record for the 20th century:

These adjustments caused an increase of about 0.5°C in the US mean for the period from 1900 to 1990.

Source:
https://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/faq/


We can see why some Americans who aren't aware of either the quality issues with temperature records or how NASA openly admits to adjusting + half a degree C into the records are becoming a little hysterical about global warming when they should not be.

BTW if instrumental records can't be trusted, or are not close to hand, you can always rely on a tree to be used as a thermometer.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/6738111/Climategate-reveals-the-most-influential-tree-in-the-world.html

pleas advice

what's your point, caller?

denismc

George Lee is causing climate change.