OK, we have to exempt from the “worst” list those that are sitting in front of air conditioning exhausts, but this is just awful:
The natural environment for millions of acres around this site in Russia Norway is reflective snow cover, so the temperature station is on black asphalt.
Since when is Svalbard in Russia?
Ditto.
Svalbard is NOT in Russia.
You can almost smell the jet fuel residue coating the instrument
FYI you all should know Warren doesn’t read the comment section.
If you want him to correct the page send him an email.
papertiger – So the comments section is poor siting for comments?
See http://www.climate4you.com/SvalbardMetPhenomena%2020080902.htm
The temperature station is used mainly for the sake of the airport activities, so it should reflect the condition on the airport. The mistake is using it for climate studies.
Hmmm, so it turns out that the location by the tarmac is not the problem, rather that there is a fjord next door which sometimes has ice on it and sometimes not.And there is a weather station nearby which is on the ice. Bit of a non story then
FDUK, where is the weather station when there isn’t any ice?
Just one of hundreds that exhibit this very same problem. This one has been discussed on Watts Up With That, and Anthony Watts has been compiling a study of sites in the US (mainly) and globally.
The results are so profoundly disturbing, it leads one to wonder if even the insignificant 0.7C per century warming is entirely due to urban growth, and the actual temperature is not warming at all.
Jerome,
You’re right to question the veracity of the Surface temperature record, particularly on account of land use changes such as (but not limited to) urbanization. The consistency of satellite and balloon records and the divergence of both from the surface record, calls into question its accuracy, even without considering the impossibly patterned and apparently intentional trends in the record’s ‘adjustments’ and ‘tweaks’ over time.
But the fact is we are living in a period of general warming. It’s a consistent and gradual warming, and has been going on since the end of the Little Ice Age. It appears with increasing confidence it’s nothing to be alarmed about, and most, and probably all, dire predictions of resulting problems such as increasing drought, wildfire, increasing sea level rise, greater storm activity and intensity, and so forth, simply have not been, nor give any significant evidence of, happening.
It’s warming, the same as it has been for the past 200 years or so. The climate is changing gradually, to some extent from greenhouse gas effects, but to a larger extent as a result of larger natural processes, just as it’s always been changing throughout the past. Its gradual enough and mild enough for people generally to be able to successfully adapt to the negative impacts of the change, as well as to take advantage of its positive impacts. It’s not an Emergency. It’s not a Crisis. It’s not even a real problem.
And it’s a sure as the sun coming up tomorrow that we won’t be reducing our (collective) emissions of CO2 much anytime in the near future. The chances societies will effectively become that suicidal are practically nil. And it’s increasingly becoming clear that even if we could, and did, it probably would have at best only very minor impact on the ongoing climate change.
So rest assured. The world’s not in any danger. At worst governments will do stupid things, for stupid reasons….as is their wont, especially at the urging of shrill and committed ideologues, of which they often very effectively exploit to the advantage of their ‘inner circle’. So another in the endless cycles of stupid, futile, wasteful, and ultimately discredited of such initatives is about the worst to expect, and even that appears increasingly likely to be mitigated by the very real damage indulging the egregiously stupid policy suggestions of the ‘Environmental’ “advocates” would inflict on economies and hence, ultimately, the political fortunes of those in government.
Even a Politician can read the writing on the wall once it’s clear enough. And it’s becoming increasingly clear a growing majority think all the breathless alarm is uncalled for, perhaps dishonest, and pointless. It’s becoming increasingly likely that ‘lip service’ is all that’ll be paid the doomsday prognostications…and that’s certainly more than deserved, even at that.
Another good post, A Diff. And I think GHG’s do nothing more than vary the timing of heat radiance. They certainly don’t stop it. Just as a pot of boiling water, the gases in the atmosphere absorb and re-emit, providing an equilibrium of heat exchange. Without the atmopshere, especially the properties of water vapor, the planet would have the same conditions as the moon. Soaring temps during the day, colder than arctic at night. The moon has no atmosphere to slow down either the heating of daytime or the heat release of night time. That is, our GHGs do not hold in the heat, they slow down its release but not by much. We still can drop 20 F from sunset to sunrise the next morning, in spite of the GHGs. Because we are radiating the heat away, especially through CO2 because it has no opacity and no albedo to speak of.
Ron, from the Longhorn state (I used to live in Austin, by the way…if you consider that anomaly as part of Texas)….
I know I’m going to sound like a broken record, but “Climate of Extremes” goes into some detail describing some studies that seem to indicate the most recent warming period was more GHG driven that other warming periods in the recent past. I think they’re worth a gander myself. Of course that doesn’t argue that GHGs are the predominant independent variable, as the same make clear, just more of factor in this most recent than other similar episodes in past. To me it’s not really at matter of whether or not humanity has an impact on climate change…for my part it’s hard to credit it’s NOT…but to what degree? In what proportion to natural variables? And, most importantly to me, to what effect?
The studies suggest, strongly, less rather than more climatic variability resulting from the apparent GHG contribution to (recent) warming…which is precisely what appears to be happening, at least to some extent.
The implication is that we all should just relax and take a deep breath…the world’s not coming to an end…at least not right now for this reason, anyway. I can make a pretty good case that the ‘precautionary principle’, taken to extremes, suggests everyone should still construct a ‘fallout shelter’ in their backyard…and going to the trouble and expense would be completely in line with the sense in taking extreme action in (probably completely futile) attempt to confront ‘Global Warming’, when all it really does is address irrational fears, and nothing more.
But as every good politician (and salesman) knows, fear sells.
papertiger – So the comments section is poor siting for comments?