Are ‘heat spikes’ becoming more common?
The BBC are still at it. Chris Morrison’s excellent piece in the Daily Sceptic today, which I trailed earlier, deals with the corruption of the Met Office’s temperature data by “temperature spikes”.
Chris wrote:
Last year, the Met Office claimed an all-time UK high May 1st temperature at Kew of 29.3°C. Analysis by citizen scientist Dr Eric Huxter showed the temperature was almost 2°C above that recorded in the hour before – well above what might be expected from such temperature rises seen during the day, with movements commonly around the plus or minus 0.2°C to 0.4°C mark.
The first record claimed last week was on Tuesday May 25th, when the temperature at the Kew site rose to 34.8°C – some 1.3°C above the previous hour. Dr Huxter has told the Daily Sceptic that some doubt remains over the figures for the next day, when the temperature hit 35.1°C. Since April last year, Huxter observes that Kew has provided no fewer than 13 daily UK extremes with an average heat spike of 1°C. By comparison, in the same period Heathrow supplied 35 temperature spikes averaging 1.2°C.
The main culprit in producing these heat spikes is the switch from liquid-in-bulb thermometers to PRT automatic electronic measuring devices during the last 30 years. These provide a more accurate reading every minute, but it is plain that they are picking up every passing heat spike – often unnatural – that were missed by slower-moving liquid in a glass bulb. Dr Huxter has calculated that in the glass-bulb era up to 1989, the 40 new records (0.3 a year) averaged steps from the previous high of 0.5°C, while from 1990 there have been 147 new records (four per year) with average steps of 1.5°C. This sudden change is used by alarmists – many of them employed by the Met Office – to suggest dramatic climate change. But an obvious and plausible explanation is provided by the switch to more accurate measuring devices.
source dailysceptic.org
The BBC, of course, place the blame for spikes firmly on global warming:
With temperatures hitting a record breaking 35.1C this week, it has been an exceptional May heatwave.
In its build up we saw temperatures increase rapidly – by up to 10C in just two days in some locations.
Historically, it would have been more common to see a gradual increase of a degree or two each day.
The rapid onset from an average to high, even extreme, temperature – or a “heat spike” – is something I and fellow meteorologists have noticed happening more often.
Ed Hawkins, professor of climate science at the University of Reading, told the BBC that “Today’s heat events are emerging earlier, intensifying faster and occurring across a much warmer background climate”.
While according to Dr Ségolène Berthou from the Met Office, “We can’t explicitly say that extreme heat temperatures spike faster now than they did in the past,” experts are beginning to piece together a number of other factors that could provide an explanation.
see: www.bbc.co.uk
It is of interest that the Met Office’s scientist can’t actually find any evidence that temperatures are spiking faster! But that does not stop the unreliable Hawkins from saying just that.
But given that Dr Eric Huxter has scientifically proven beyond any reasonable doubt that heat spikes at Met Office stations are a product of the switch from liquid-in-bulb thermometers to PRT automatic electronic measuring devices during the last 30 years, the whole Hawkins/BBC argument falls to pieces.
Combine that with the proliferation of dodgy, junk temperature stations in the Met Office network, which amplify temperatures on hot, sunny days, and all you get is a mirage of heat spikes.
more at notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com