Extreme Temperatures
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Igloo

How the media distort the news: Lies by omission

Maurice Newman
© Jim RiceMaurice Newman, the Australian Prime Minister's business adviser, has warned of a cooling not warming world.
The Sydney Morning Herald carefully removed the scientific arguments from an article today. Are they afraid their readers are not smart enough to reach the "right" conclusions if exposed to the wrong information? Hey, but its only national policy and billions of dollars at stake.

Today Maurice Newman warned that we are not prepared for climate change (he's talking about the cold kind). The Australian published his thoughts citing Archibald, Usoskin, Svensmark, Brekke, Lockwood and Curry. Their readers are apparently clever enough to handle discussions of cosmic rays and large hadron colliders.

In Sydney Morning Herald, Latika Bourke and Lisa Cox write an article about Newman's views, but carefully omit all of the scientific arguments, as well as the potential problems with one sided science funding and the names and credentials of the scientists he talks about. The pair do, however, find space to repeat the litany of the IPCC's estimate of 95% "probability" (it's hard to believe Sydney Morning Herald readers have not heard this before). They don't mention that the IPCC estimate is a speculative and unscientific number which gets paradoxically higher as the IPCC's predictions are proven wrong. Nor did they interview Newman and ask him his opinion of this.

Rather than talking about possibilities that scientists are discussing, it was more important to remind SMH readers that Prime Minister Abbott once said climate change was "absolute crap". How that helps the nation decide on national climate policy is not made clear, though the implication is: skeptics only have dumb arguments. No doubt SMH readers will understand which opinion they are supposed to hold, and "lucky" for them, journalists Bourke and Cox are experts on atmospheric physics, particle collisions, and climate modeling. If only they'd explained the flaws in Maurice Newman's arguments instead of concealing them, the whole nation would have been better off.

One day, the poor SMH readers, like ABC viewers, might be shocked when they discover how they were fed propaganda lines by dutiful journalists who, no doubt, thought they were doing a good job. Still, one great thing about the SMH is that the citizens of Australia don't have to pay for it if they don't want to.

The Australian's readers already know the IPCC position. The editors there, dare to give us the other side as well:

Snowflake Cold

Wild weather: Summer is over for UK, with cold spell and even SNOW forecast next week

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© National NewsRain-lashed: Commuters cross London Bridge on Friday
After days of heavy rain, a band of low pressure will hit the UK on Sunday and bring cooler weather for much of next week, according to forecasters. The sweltering summer is about to become a distant memory with a dramatic plunge in temperatures.

The Met Office is expecting unsettled windy conditions, with a mix of sunshine and showers, and possibly even snow on higher ground in Scotland. Spokeswoman Nicky Maxey said today:"It's getting cooler, definitely. It's the end of the summer - autumn starts on September 1. We have some colder northerly winds coming in and temperatures will drop next week. We're looking at average or below average temperatures and the night-time low could be down to single figures."

Comment: The evidence is growing that instead of the much touted global warming, the weather is in fact cooling down. Check out these recent SOTT-articles

The Ice Age looms: Record cold summer temperatures across many U.S. states
Ice age cometh: No warming left to deny... Global cooling takes over... CET annual mean temperature plunges 1°C since 2000
The Ice Age Cometh: Scientists increasingly moving to global cooling consensus


Document

Cooling or warming climate? 'Data says global cooling, physical model says it has to be warming'

From the University of Wisconsin-Madison
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© IStockA fisherman walks toward open water in the Antarctic ice sheet.
When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently requested a figure for its annual report, to show global temperature trends over the last 10,000 years, the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Zhengyu Liu knew that was going to be a problem.

"We have been building models and there are now robust contradictions," says Liu, a professor in the UW-Madison Center for Climatic Research. "Data from observation says global cooling. The physical model says it has to be warming."

Writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today, Liu and colleagues from Rutgers University, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, the University of Hawaii, the University of Reading, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the University of Albany describe a consistent global warming trend over the course of the Holocene, our current geological epoch, counter to a study published last year that described a period of global cooling before human influence.

Video

Extreme weather in Russia - July 2014 (VIDEO)

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Extreme weather phenomena battered many parts of Russia in July. From waterspouts in the Black and Azov Seas, to super-sized hail on beaches, super-cells in Siberia, and deluges throughout the country, Russia is not used to such weather. Check it out...


Snowflake Cold

Record antarctic cold threatened lives of British Antarctic Survey members during power outage

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© Wattsupwiththat.com
Thirteen members of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) were trapped and in danger of freezing to death when their base, Halley VI, lost power. Power went down on July 30th and is now partially restored. The BAS waited to report the incident until power came back up, however now reports that the incident was so serious that all science activities have been suspended and emergency contingency plans to abandon some of Halley's eight modules and attempt to shelter in a remaining few have been prepared.

The incident is particularly serious, as the station is likely completely cut off from rescue for months.

The incident occurred during the height of the Antarctic winter while southern sea ice is at or near record highs (Marc Morano has details at Climate Depot).

One Survey member, Anthony Lister, managed to send a out a "tweet" when power came back up, reporting that the outage occurred while the station was experiencing record cold temperatures of -55.4° C (-67.72° F). (h/t Rai news)

Snowflake Cold

New Yorkers experience coldest summer in a decade

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© NYpost/Anthony J. CausiThe Coney Island boardwalk.
The summer of 2014 has been one of the mildest on the books - and could be the first summer in a decade without a heatwave.

"It wasn't clear if it was going to be a hot or a cool summer," said National Weather Service meteorologist David Stark. "We started out the year very cool and it seems like we just continued that. It doesn't look like we have any heat waves in the near future."

Instead of searching for the skimpiest outfits to battle the sizzling sun, New Yorkers are reaching for their sweatshirts.

"It's been so much colder this summer," said Susan Vartholomatos, 51, who broke out her bikini for a beach day Friday afternoon. "In the morning, when I go out to my terrace, I need a sweatshirt."

Vartholomatos said she wishes it was hotter, adding "I'd take heat and humidity over snow any day."

Only four days have hit 90 degrees this summer, three in July and one in August, with the hottest temperature on the books clocking in at 91.

Cloud Precipitation

Hail the size of golf and tennis balls pummels Calgary area, Canada

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© @erind11/TwitterGolf ball-sized hail struck suddenly in Airdrie, north of Calgary, Thursday afternoon.

Airdrie hail storm likely caused 'gustnado' in Calgary, officials say

Environment Canada says incident was not a tornado but rather a spout from an Airdrie storm


It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a - "gustnado?"While police say they did receive several reports of a tornado touching down east of Métis Trail and north of Stoney Trail, Environment Canada says the incident was rather a gustnado, or spout from a nearby storm system battering Airdrie.

The weather agency says the storm system was not over Calgary at the time of the incident and the spiral winds likely came from the nearby storm.Det. Dale Seddon with the Calgary Police Service says the incident didn't cause any damage and hit a grassy area.


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© Sarah BuistGolf ball-sized hail in Airdrie has caused damage to some vehicles and properties in the area.

Cloud Precipitation

Another violent hailstorm hits the Altai region, Russia

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Another hailstorm abruptly started in the Altai region a day ago. Hundreds of cars and buildings suffered, even the walls of buildings got holes, as the hailstorm was accompanied by stormy weather with high wind speeds.

Here we have almost fifty photos of the hailstorm's aftermath and the posts from the discussions boards. Here is one:

"Those are Americans testing meteorological weapons. Soon you'll see this in Moscow. Every day." - said one person.

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"They have disturbed an ancient mummy in Altai, maybe they should put it back", says another. They really did.

Igloo

Adelaide wakes to its coldest August morning in 126 years

Cold Adelaide
© ABC News/Tom FedorowytschRenmark had a frosty start with the mercury dipping well below zero.
Adelaide has woken to its coldest start to an August day in 126 years and it was colder across other parts of South Australia. At 6:30am (ACST) the temperature was down to 0.9 degrees Celsius. The weather bureau said it was the coldest August morning since 1888.

It was also the coldest day Adelaide has experienced in any month in six years. Senior forecaster Mark Anolak said the low temperature has been brought on by cold air from the Antarctic moving over Adelaide.

"Under a ridge of high pressure that we are experiencing at the moment, clear skies have led to very cold temperatures over the last couple of days," he said.

"Murray Bridge has had its coldest ever start to the day in August at -2.7 degrees this morning."

Most of regional South Australia woke to cold and frosty conditions. The weather bureau said it got down to -5.6C in Renmark, just above freezing in Lameroo and -3.9C in Loxton. Clear, sunny skies lifted the temperature as the morning went on.

Attention

Bufflehead duck of boreal forests turns up in New Hampshire in July

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Report from NH Audobon rare bird alert for birders in NH

A bufflehead was reported on Pleasant Lake in New London on July 25.

It's a small duck, rarely seen in the state, whose normal range is in the Arctic and Canada.

The males are mostly white with a black puffy head, while the female is dark with a white spot behind the eye.

Rest of report here.