It’s that time of the month again. Thanks to all who have participated in the past. It looks like there is almost enough data to do a little analysis of the results so far. Please vote on your prediction of the direction of RSS global temperature since April below.
There is quite a lot happening in AGW, but once again, a busy week moving house and time of the year issues, so my apologies. Here are some of events that seem to be emerging as important:
CommentsMy signed copy of Heaven+Earth: Global Warming, the missing science by Australia’s most eminent geologist arrived last week. Peter Gallagher has just reviewed it here, and I agree with most of his impressions.
Apart from anything else it seems like a useful compendium of “History, Sun, Earth, Water, Air” facts and references, with over 500 pages and 2311 references. My hardcover version is laid out in a small book format with over-narrow margins, making it look a little like a “Backpackers Guide”. The language is quite informal too, so the impression fits.
CommentsThe Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has acquired daily weather data from many sites for many years and compiled it into a base that compares well with that from other countries.
The data in various stages of treatment is available from Dr Stockwell through this site. It includes a small amount of infilling of missing data, usually by inserting the value(s) of an adjacent day. The infilling is not considered to alter the conclusions, but it is a mathematical convenience. It can be said of these 17 rural sites that –
• the most northerly half averaged similar slopes to the southerly half
• airport locations were similar to non-airport locations
• there is insignificant correlation with nearby town populations
• there does not seem to be a UHI effect
• in some places, instrumental problems might be confused with climate responses
• the slope of inland sites was greater by far than the slope of coastal sites.
The two purposes of this note are to solicit suggestions on why inland sites (which equate to higher elevations above sea level) mostly have higher slopes than coastal sites; and to make known the availability of worked data as outlined. Remember that the problem needing explanation is not simply moderation of temperatures by the sea. That might reduce data scatter, but it would not easily reduce temperature increase as happens inland.
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