The U.K. Met Office routinely claims heat records from thermometers that are so poorly sited the World Meteorological Society (WMO) attaches an error estimate stating they could be out by up to 2°C. This shock disclosure is contained in the reply to a recent Freedom of Information (FOI) request from the climate journalist Paul Homewood. One example is Porthmadog in North Wales that has provided a steady stream of Welsh records in recent years, and is sited in a vegetation sun trap near the North Wales coast.
The WMO has five classes grading temperature-measurement suitability. There are strict requirements for class 1 to ensure accuracy while sources of corruption increase up to class 4, where the WMO states the temperature could be out by as much as 2°C. The fifth and last class has no requirements and an error estimate of 5°C. Homewood’s FOI request drew the information from the Met Office that Porthmadog’s surrounding vegetation led to a class 4 classification. “This classification is an acceptable rating for a temperature sensor, hence we will continue to quote from this site,” replied the Met Office.
Far from being “acceptable”, this shocking admission reveals the site is completely unacceptable. The Met Office appears hell-bent on catastrophising British weather in the interest of promoting the collectivist Net Zero project. Temperature data corrupted to the extent allowed in WMO class 4 should never be used to make specific observations about the weather, let alone incorporated into long-term datasets. Homewood notes that he is “lost for words”. The Met Office is happy to use a class 4 site for climatological purposes, “even though that class is next to junk status”.
At the end of May, NorthWalesLive reported that Porthmadog recorded the hottest day of the year so far – “and not for the first time”. The Met Office promoted the high on twitter, helpfully colouring the U.K. map orange, one step away from full blood red alert. NorthWalesLive reported that this was by no means a first for the Gwynedd town, “which is regularly Wales’s and sometimes the U.K.’s warmest spot”. There is no mention that the temperature is so high because of the sensor’s highly corrupted, sun-trapped location. Instead Met Office meteorologist Mark Wilson explained: “With the wind coming from the north-east, Porthmadog is getting a lot of shelter. Although it’s by the coast it’s not really getting a lot of breeze off the sea, meaning the temperatures keep rising and rising.”
In fact it seems that the Porthmadog site is excellent value for all-year round records. Last November, the BBC reported, under a ‘climate change’ heading, that the U.K.’s warmest ever Remembrance Sunday had been recorded in the town. Temperatures soared to 21.2°C, beating the previous record, curiously by 2°C, set 33 years ago, also, less curiously, in Gwynedd.
The admission that heat records are being promoted from class 4 sites that could have errors of up to 2°C is the latest signal to the Met Office that it must issue a full explanation to quell the rising doubts surrounding its relentless propagandising of so-called temperature records. Last week, the Daily Sceptic cast considerable further doubt on 2022’s 60-second 40.3°C U.K. record declared at RAF Coningsby on July 19th. Our FOI request found that at least three Typhoon fighter jets were landing at or around the same time the temperature briefly jumped to the new record. There are many airports feeding information into Met Office datasets, and they are unsuitable for accurately measuring purely weather and climatic conditions. Leaving aside any temporary heat distortions from passing jet traffic, they are often cauldrons of heat arising from runways and buildings. Of course none of this would matter very much if temperature readings were used for their original purpose to provide a rough guide to local weather conditions. Using these corrupted data as a primary ‘climate breakdown’ weapon to persuade entire human populations to drastically cut back on their lifestyles is another matter altogether.
Paul Homewood has also raised questions about recent changes made by the Met Office to the Central England Record (CET), the oldest continuous surface temperature collection dating back to around 1660. He found that for most of the record up to 1970, the adjustments are small and have no obvious pattern, with ups and downs offsetting each other. Then, he notes, the years from 1970 to 2003 have been cooled quite markedly, and just as abruptly the temperatures over the last 20 years have been consistently adjusted up.
The graph above plots the changes from the two versions. The cynical might note that the 1980s and 90s were strangely ‘overestimated’, while the last couple of decades were suddenly underestimated, for reasons that go unexplained. One effect noted by Homewood is that a 0.07°C cooling of the summer in 1995 now means it ties with 2022, instead of being hotter. In 2018, the summer was adjusted up by 0.13°C. Homewood concludes with the obvious point that changes to the CET are part of wider adjustments globally, “and the tampering is always one way, cooling the past and heating the present”.
Chris Morrison is the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor.
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Perhaps it would be useful if they explained the terms: Tolerance, Accuracy, Precision, Error, and Uncertainty. Also, what the relevant values are in their context and how it affects interpretation of the results. Not well explained to most people, and a cynic might observe that they want it to be like that.
One thing one can always state about graphs from Climate Loonies.
There will be NO error bars.
Unfortunately if they did they would suggest that it could have been 2C warmer!
Shouldn’t that be heat record (singular)? As far as I can see this is all about one thermometer in North Wales.
No, multiple records broken at the same site and the mention of RAF Coningsby.
Fair enough -many records one thermometer.
You were right first time.
When a record is broken it is replaced by the new one. There is only one record at any one time. So a record may be broken repeatedly, but it is still only one record.
You might argue that as the temperature rises during the day that the daily record is continuously broken until it reaches a peak, but it remains a single record.
This is getting very academic (my fault!). In the interests of pedantry that thermometer was potentially used for different records in the sense of max temp, max average temp for 24 hours, maximum night time temp, etc, etc.
The entire Klimate Kult is a fraud from the NOAA, to NASA (not a space agency) to the Met etc. All paid by government. All controlled by government. As Homewodd says, all cooling the past and heating up the present. All part of the plan (agenda 2030 and the next LD). The Met is just another institution that cannot be trusted.
Anything that gives the results you want is acceptable.
Anyone who has looked at anthropogenic global warming (Now renamed climate change) dispassionately knows it is hooey.
Hardly presaging the heat death of the planet…
There was that “You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time”. ——–True enough. But when it comes to the climate agenda you only have to fool 9 out of 10. ——–Most people are busy with work and family life and don’t have time to investigate every issue. They come in from work and switch on their 6 O’clock News in amongst dishing out the potatoes and filling up the kids diluting juice, and think that investigative journalists on their TV are informing them about things. Sure, if it is about a helicopter crashing into a mountain, they will likely be getting a fair reporting of what happened to that helicopter and its occupants. But that is because a helicopter crashing is not politicised. ————-Climate Change on the other hand is totally and highly politicised. Global Governance has long been something that progressives have wanted. Exploiting the perceived rape of the planet gave them the opportunity they needed to bring that about. The environmental issue (and climate in particular) was the ideal issue for the UN and its campaign to eradicate injustice and the tool was “Sustainable Development”, state control and central planning————How many busy parents trying to get kids to do their homework or stop making a racket upstairs even know what that is? But the TV News they tune into each night will hardly ever mention any of that stuff. Certainly not the BBC or SKY NEWS, who are simply climate activist channels. ———–So you maybe cannot “fool all of the people all of the time” but you can certainly fool most of them and that is what is occurring.
100% agree. Once you do the slightest bit of digging it is blindingly obvious that it is one big lie. The whole of June was pleasant, big deal. We knew it would be raining by Wimbledon. The BBC and the rest are gaslighting on a grand scale. Yet when I talk to my friends about it their eyes roll back. I wonder what it will take for some people to stop trusting MSM
While agreeing in the main varmint ….. why does that mean we excuse them? what do they see when they look out the window?..what do they see day to day? what do they see when they go on holiday? What do they see that gives them any confirmation for this bullshit?
Its like thinking there’s a pandemic, but not actually knowing anyone who died..seeing no evidence for what you are being told…
I’m getting a bit angry because these idiots will ‘lemming’ us all off the freaking cliff!!
I see what you mean, but remember that government and a complaint mainstream media are presenting one particular view that there is a dangerous climate crisis going on and refuse to allow any questions to be asked on this issue. It is not easy for an ordinary person to go against what they see on their TV news everyday. Not everyone has the wherewithal to investigate every single issue. A lie repeated often enough becomes the truth.
Is there an unadjusted series based on class 1 readings only? If not, why not?
The Graun was blaming El Nino. I look forward to any evidence of anthropogenic influence on that Pacific phenomenon.
Sounds like a lot of hot-over inflated air to me..
Its obviously that old greenhouse gas again.. oh.. wait a minute.. what’s this about CO2 being heavier than air..
Just a little nugget below to ponder..
Open the above text in a new tab to read..
“I would watch those temperatures records if I were you Sir. I think they may be a bit tainted, but then again, it’s all down to personal taste what”? ———–No doubt Captain Bligh would keel haul all the “deniers”, and it would be up to Mr. Christian to point out that the temperature record was not to be trusted and incite the “deniers” to Mutiny.
I’d be suspicious of any reported long term temperature increase from Cambridge too. The weather station there ( in the Botanical Gardens) was originally in open countryside but during the last century it has progressively become surrounded by suburban growth and even some high-rise offices. It’s a lovely sun-trap but not really a good climate monitoring station. Might be useful for the occasional summer “record” though .
Where can we get accurate weather forecasts? I was on the Met Office app….but clearly I am being lied to everyday.
Greta Thumberg to Dad : Dad, I’m starting to get moist downstairs Dad to Greta : It’s climate change dear.