The IPCC released their "approved" Summary for Policymakers for their 5^th Assessment Report early this morning (eastern U.S. time), still in draft form. As far as I can tell, there are two paragraphs that discuss the recent global temperature plateau.

Note: I haven't yet crosschecked between the draft and the approved versions to see if they've made any significant changes, so the following may be old hat.

From page 3:

In addition to robust multi-decadal warming, global mean surface temperature exhibits substantial decadal and interannual variability (see Figure SPM.1). Due to natural variability, trends based on short records are very sensitive to the beginning and end dates and do not in general reflect long-term climate trends. As one example, the rate of warming over the past 15 years (1998 - 2012; 0.05 [ - 0.05 to +0.15] °C per decade), which begins with a strong El Niño, is smaller than the rate calculated since 1951 (1951 - 2012; 0.12 [0.08 to 0.14] °C per decade).

And from page 12:

The observed reduction in surface warming trend over the period 1998 - 2012 as compared to the period 1951 - 2012, is due in roughly equal measure to a reduced trend in radiative forcing and a cooling contribution from internal variability, which includes a possible redistribution of heat within the ocean (medium confidence). The reduced trend in radiative forcing is primarily due to volcanic eruptions and the timing of the downward phase of the 11-year solar cycle. However, there is low confidence in quantifying the role of changes in radiative forcing in causing the reduced warming trend. There is medium confidence that internal decadal variability causes to a substantial degree the difference between observations and the simulations; the latter are not expected to reproduce the timing of internal variability. There may also be a contribution from forcing inadequacies and, in some models, an overestimate of the response to increasing greenhouse gas and other anthropogenic forcing (dominated by the effects of aerosols). {9.4, Box 9.2, 10.3, Box 10.2, 11.3}

Regarding the cause of the warming, still living in fantasy world, they write:

Greenhouse gases contributed a global mean surface warming likely to be in the range of 0.5°C to 1.3°C over the period 1951−2010, with the contributions from other anthropogenic forcings, including the cooling effect of aerosols, likely to be in the range of −0.6°C to 0.1°C. The contribution from natural forcings is likely to be in the range of −0.1°C to 0.1°C, and from internal variability is likely to be in the range of −0.1°C to 0.1°C. Together these assessed contributions are consistent with the observed warming of approximately 0.6°C to 0.7°C over this period. {10.3}

They're still misleading the public. Everyone knows (well, many of us know) their models can't simulate the natural processes that cause surface temperatures to warm over multidecadal timeframes, yet they insist on continuing this myth.

© Alamy
Ash dieback is still decimating the countryside, and threatening healthy trees like his one, almost a year after it first struck in Britain

Tree-killer fungus 'impossible to stop' as it sweeps Britain with ash dieback disease found in 500 areas a year after first outbreak

• Disease out of control in the East and South East of England
• Somerset confirmed as the 15th English county with the fungal disease
• Outbreaks in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
• Of infected sites in Britain, more than half linked to imported ash trees

Tree disease ash dieback is still decimating the countryside almost a year after it first struck in Britain.

The deadly fungus, which is rife across mainland Europe, is now out of control in the East and South East of England and there have been outbreaks in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Somerset was confirmed as the 15th English county with the fungal disease after staff on the National Trust's Holnicote Estate near Minehead discovered blighted leaves on a handful of ash trees this month.

The latest official figures reveal there are 571 infected sites in Britain, with 334 linked to imported ash trees, 213 in the wider environment and 24 in nurseries.

But the actual figure could be higher because as the disease has taken hold, there has been less urgency to report new cases.

Forestry Commission staff are now conducting a new survey of woodlands in the East and South East of England to gain a clearer picture of the how disease has spread in the wild.

Infected trees are no longer being felled, in the hope of finding mature trees that are resistant to the disease, which is known as Chalara fraxinea.

Well, of course they are. If there is one overriding prerequisite of every new IPCC Assessment report, it's to sound even more scary and urgent and certain than its predecessor.

Professor Bob Carter noted this progression in his excellent book Climate: the Counter Consensus:

First Assessment Report (1990) - "The observed [twentieth century] temperature increase could be largely due...to natural variability."

Second Assessment Report (1996) - "The balance of the evidence suggests a discernible human influence on climate."

Third Assessment Report (2001) - "There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last fifty years is attributable to human activities."

Fourth Assessment Report (2007) - "Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperature since the mid-twentieth century is very likely [= 90 per cent probable] due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations."

On Friday the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change delivers its latest verdict on the state of man-made global warming. Though the details are a secret, one thing is clear: the version of events you will see and hear in much of the media, especially from partis pris organisations like the BBC, will be the opposite of what the IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report actually says.

Already we have had a taste of the nonsense to come: a pre-announcement to the effect that "climate scientists" are now "95 per cent certain" that humans are to blame for climate change; an evidence-free declaration by the economist who wrote the discredited Stern Report that the computer models cited by the IPCC "substantially underestimate" the scale of the problem; a statement by the panel's chairman, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, that "the scientific evidence of... climate change has strengthened year after year".

As an exercise in bravura spin, these claims are up there with Churchill's attempts to reinvent the British Expeditionary Force's humiliating retreat from Dunkirk as a victory. In truth, though, the new report offers scant consolation to those many alarmists whose careers depend on talking up the threat. It says not that they are winning the war to persuade the world of the case for catastrophic anthropogenic climate change - but that the battle is all but lost.

An early winter storm dumped a record amount of rain in the Pacific Northwest, knocked out power to thousands and likely churned up a rare tornado Monday that ripped a hole in the roof on an industrial plant near Seattle. The most dramatic damage was at an industrial park in Frederickson, south of Tacoma. As thunder and lightning flashed, the wind uprooted trees and tore a jagged hole in the roof of the Northwest Door manufacturing plant.

"It looked from the inside like a wave going along. You could actually see the roof flexing," Northwest Door President Jeff Hohman said. Witnesses reported seeing a tornado in the area at the time, and the Weather Service sent a team to Frederickson to investigate. Washington may get a tornado or two every year, but they are usually small. One of the largest was an F3 in 1972 in Vancouver that killed six people.

No one was injured in Monday. About 100 employees evacuated and the business closed while inspectors assess a 40-by-40-foot hole in the roof. The wind also caused damage at a nearby Boeing plant, mostly in the parking lot, spokesman Doug Alder said. The storm blew out the windows of about two dozen cars and knocked down fences, power lines and trees. Some tiles were blown off the Boeing roof. Nobody was injured and there wasn't any damage to airplane parts or equipment.

Alton, Iowa - The puny, yellow corn stalks stand like weary sentries on one boundary of Dennis Von Arb's field here.

On a windy day this spring, his neighbor sprayed glyphosate on his fields, and some of the herbicide blew onto Mr. Von Arb's conventionally grown corn, killing the first few rows.

He's more concerned, though, about the soil. During heavy rains in the summer, the runoff from his neighbor's farm soaked his fields with glyphosate-laden water.

"Anything you put on the land affects the chemistry and biology of the land, and that's a powerful pesticide," Mr. Von Arb said.

But 20 miles down the road, Brad Vermeer brushes aside such concerns.

A two headed adder has been caught on camera by Gordon Crook in North Yorkshire, UK. Mr Crook was alerted to the snake while walking with a local ramblers group. "At first I thought it might be a reflection or a double exposure. Downloaded it onto the computer and it was very evident that it had two heads!" he said. John Wilkinson, Science Programme Manager at the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust, was surprised to see the photo of the animal which he described as a juvenile conjoined twin. He explained that during development the fertilised egg began to split but stopped and it is rare for the animal to have survived beyond hatching. Fellow expert and member of The British Herpetological Society Dr John Baker agreed "This is very unusual and is a very rare find. I don't know of any two headed adder records in the UK."

The latest addition to Pakistan's shoreline looks like a gigantic, steaming turd laid by a Kaiju. The mud volcano - which appeared suddenly last week after a 7.7 magnitude tremblor struck the region - has been belching toxic fumes that can be set alight.

The top image was taken by NASA's Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA's Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite. The image below comes via the National Institute of Oceanography. It shows a close-up of the landform, estimated to stretch 75 to 90 meters (250 to 300 feet) across and standing 15 to 20 meters (60 to 70 feet) above the water line.

A powerful typhoon has left 75 people missing after sinking three Chinese fishing boats in the South China Sea, media reports say. Citing maritime authorities, Xinhua news agency said on Monday that "three fishing boats have sunk since Sunday afternoon."

The incident took place after the vessels with 88 fishermen aboard encountered strong winds near the Paracel Islands, said a statement released by the Hainan government in south China. "Two of the vessels sank Sunday and contact with the third has been lost," it said. Typhoon Wutip also forced tens of thousands of people to flee high-risk areas in central Vietnam on Monday.

The powerful typhoon, with sustained winds of up to 93 miles per hour, was expected to rock the central coast later Monday. Disaster official Le Tri Cong said more than 43,000 people were evacuated from coastal areas to safe places in Quang Tri Province as of Sunday night.

Event Time
2013-09-29 17:55:54 UTC-12:00 at epicenter
2013-09-30 07:55:54 UTC+02:00 system time

Location
30.956°S 178.244°W depth=34.8km (21.6mi)

Nearby Cities
81km (50mi) NE of L'Esperance Rock, New Zealand
870km (541mi) NE of Whangarei, New Zealand
891km (554mi) NNE of Whakatane, New Zealand
906km (563mi) NE of Tauranga, New Zealand
1129km (702mi) SSW of Nuku'alofa, Tonga

Technical details