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NASA bit by Y2K temperature bug

David L. Hagen
August 12, 2007
Global Warming
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Some of the hype over recent US temperature records got deflated when NASA corrected a Y2K temperature processing error found by Steve McIntyre.

(Aug. 13, 2007: McIntyre is upgrading server, and is temporarily  posting c/o Anthony Watts’ Watts Up With That)
In Does Hansen’s Error “Matter?” ClimateAudit.org takes NASA to task for not clearly publicizing its corrections. NASA quietly corrected its GISS data of contiguous 48 states US temperature anomalies and corresponding US 48 state temperature anomaly graphs.

IceCap reports the new top 20 rankings. Dust bowl 1934 now holds the hottest temperature record, with 1931, 1938 and 1939 also in the top ten. Of recent years, 1998 drops to second, and only 2006 and 1999 remain in the top ten temperature records in the US 48 contiguous states. (The global temperature trends are apparently still rising.)

The very low publicity NASA gave to correcting these errors complements the effort by Al Gore et al. to demonize any skeptics of the magnitude of the anthropogenic global warming. e.g., Marc Sheppard explores this sorry trail from Greenpeace to this week’s proclamations.

Hmm. That outcry by the majority, when their funding is threatened by skeptics raising uncomfortable questions, seems to have a familiar ring to it! Especially when corrections are given so little publicity.

Comments
ClimateAudit.org came back up August 14. DLH

NASA's global warming misinformation needs full retraction

Christopher Alleva August 15, 2007

"The news blackout on the erroneous NASA temperature data has been partially lifted by the Toronto Star. More than anything their story was driven by home pride in a local man, Steve McIntyre, who single-handedly exposed the vaunted American Space agency's mistakes and errors. Drudge is linking this story so more pressure is building on the media to lift the blackout . . . ."

Is majority science self correcting? Or does it need the skeptical gadfly?

Should the Press be an advocate for Majority Science?

Or does the Press need to hold Majority Science accountable?

DLH
Was the cause Y2K or Time of Day? Red faces at NASA over climate-change blunder "Puzzled by a bizarre "jump" in the U.S. anomalies from 1999 to 2000, McIntyre discovered the data after 1999 wasn't being fractionally adjusted to allow for the times of day that readings were taken or the locations of the monitoring stations." Can anyone verify this one or the other? DLH

Has not the NEWS equal propensity to highlight "bad news" and hide "good news"? Mark Steyn expounds on this in An Inconvenient Truth New York Sun, August 13, 2007

Hmmm. But then so do "We the People" - and so do I.

DLH
Dave:
In Does Hansen’s Error “Matter?” ClimateAudit.org takes NASA to task for not clearly publicizing its corrections. NASA quietly corrected its GISS data of contiguous 48 states US temperature anomalies and corresponding US 48 state temperature anomaly graphs. IceCap reports the new top 20 rankings. Dust bowl 1934 now holds the hottest temperature record, with 1931, 1938 and 1939 also in the top ten. Of recent years, 1998 drops to second, and only 2006 and 1999 remain in the top ten temperature records in the US 48 contiguous states. (The global temperature trends are apparently still rising.)
Given what Kyoto et al cost, this has my nomination for the most expensive Y2K bug (and one that hits nearly 8 years later)! The lack of open acknowledgement of errors in the dataset that led to the scare-headlines on the hottest decade ever etc etc, is telling. Looks like the hottest decade was the 1930's . . . which was also about the time of some of the worst hurricanes. And, before the bulk of oil burning. GEM of TKI kairosfocus
The global warming house of cards is coming down fast. DaveScot

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