The WMO article most definitely was hinting at Global Warming as the "cause." It is not a big leap to the conclusions of the Daily Green.

The whole thing is like hypochondria. Once you start looking for problems you see them everywhere. Floods, drought, hurricanes, tornadoes, famine, heat and cold have pervaded the entire record of human history.

Chicken Little syndrome seems to be the norm in 2007.

Reply: I agree they may be hinting, but they are not flat out saying it such as the article says. There is a difference. Brett

Hey did anyone notice that none of the extreme events occured in the US?

I will wager that every American denier will cry that it can not be Global Warming if it did not happen here!

Anyhow, here are the 13 events:

1. Monsoon Frequency Doubles
The Indian summer monsoon season�s first half saw twice as many monsoon depressions as normal, leading to catastrophic flooding across South Asia, 500 deaths, the displacement of 10 million people, and the destruction of vast acreage of farmland and property.

2. First Ever Arabian Cyclone
Cyclone Gonu was the first documented cyclone in the Arabian Sea. It hit Oman and Iran in early June, killing 50 and affecting 20,000 others.

3. Intense Flooding In China
Heavy rains from June 6-10 affected 13.5 million Chinese citizens, and killed 120 in flooding and landslides.

4. Unprecedented Rain In England
England and Wales saw the wettest May-to-July period ever recorded in more than two centuries of weather record keeping. Intense one-day bursts in June and July caused extensive flooding, killed nine and caused an estimated $6 billion in damages.

5. Wet And Dry Extremes In Germany
In April, Germany recorded its driest April on record. A month later, Germany saw nearly two times as much rain as is typical, and recorded its wettest May since record keeping began more than a century ago.

6. Deadly European Storms
January saw torrential rains and ferocious winds across Europe, leading to the death of 47 and electricity outages affecting thousands.

7. Mozambique Flooding
February floods in Mozambique, the worst in six years, killed 30 and led to the evacuations of 120,000.

8. Nile River Overflows
Heavy and early rainfall in Sudan since the end of June has caused the Nile River and others to swell, and the flooding has damaged thousands of homes.

9. Islands Inundated
Huge wave swells, up to 14 feet in height, swamped 68 islands and 16 atolls in the Maldives in May.

10. Uruguay Flooding
Uruguay had its worst floods since 1959 in May, affecting 110,000 people and severely damaging crops and buildings.

11. Double Heat Wave
Southern Europe was blasted by two heat waves in June and July, breaking a series of temperature records, and spawning dozens of wildfires. Bulgaria recorded a new high temperature of 113 degrees, and other areas sweltered in 104+ degree heat.

12. Record Moscow Heat
In May, a heat wave in western and central Russia broke temperature records, including a 91 degree mark in Moscow that broke a 116-year-old record.

13. Record April Warmth
Across Europe, April ranked in many countries as the warmest ever recorded.

Hi Brett - as you've seen before I like to call it GLO-BULL warming because of the poor media reporting , the hype & some questionable science. I guess this would be as good an example as any.
Check out Climate Audit ... Steve has posted some GISS temp change updates for the US and 1998 is no longer the hottest year & several others have changed places.
The science is settled & the trend is clear Andrew??? Maybe in your mind but this boy has been around too long ( lived through the ice age is coming hype in the '70's ) to think we have all the answers. I have noticed an inverse relationship between reports of crop circles & media reports on GB warming.
Just kidding guys, but the warming hype seems to be the Y2K bug, killer bees, SARS, mad cow etc etc all over again.

Be good,
Rick.

rick,

Nice find - thanks. According to revised GISS records, the 1930s was the hottest decade.
http://climatesci.colorado.edu/2007/08/08/giss-has-reranked-us-temperature-anomalies/

Pretty clear indication of cyclical temperature variations, not linear.

Also, why is it that AGW profiteers don't want to talk about increasing Antarctic sea ice?
http://climatesci.colorado.edu/2007/08/08/antarctic-sea-ice-trends-a-guest-weblog-by-ben-herman/
http://ams.allenpress.com/archive/1520-0477/88/6/pdf/i1520-0477-88-6-s1.pdf
figure 5.22
or decreasing hurricanes
figs 4.18, 4.19

Just the alarmists using lies again to further their agenda. Nothing new here.

Patrick,

It is also worth note that the five-year temperature mean for departure from normal was only above .5 degrees Celsius for two years during the 1930s.

In contrast, the five year mean has been above .5 every year since 1998, by far the longest such streak. In fact, 1932 and 1933 were the only other years before 1988 where the five-year mean reached above .50 degrees. Six of the eight highest five-year means have occured since 1998. 1932 and 1933 rank 5th and 6th, respectively.

I make note of this because it shows that the recent warm years are more than isolated events; they are part of a larger trend. According to the GISS data, the last time the 5-year mean was below average was in 1984. That's 20 consecutive years of the mean temperature being above average. Granted, there was also a 20-year streak from 1929 to 1948, but the 5-year values were generally lower than those we see in the current streak. Plus, given that the last 5-year entry was .66 and the annual score for 2006 was 1.13, we can expect the current streak to last at least a couple more years.

Here is a link to the GISS data referenced by Steve McIntyre, who was referenced by the Colorado site.

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/Fig.D.txt

Patrick,

Also, did you notice that figures 4.18 and 4.19 only referred to hurricane activity in the Indian Ocean, and that one spanned 35 years, and the other only 25? Neither are particularly good for dictating long-term trends in hurricane activity. In fact, as it states in the text:

"Due to a lack of historical record keeping
by individual countries and no centralized monitoring agency, the SIO [South Indian Ocean] is probably the least understood of all TC basins."

The one thing that annoys me about the study's section on tropical cyclone activity is that the methodology for showing hurricane history is not consistent for all basins. For instance, it has time-series charts for all but the Atlantic and Western Pacific basins. Activity in the Western Pacific is represented by a bar chart that makes it difficult to compare notes on typhoons as well as super typhoons from year to year. For the Atlantic Basin, it provides no numerical hurricane history at all. Nor are the formats of the ACE indices for each basin consistent.

Nevertheless, from what I've read, it's an interesting report.

Travis,

If you look at the USHCN adjustments, you can see that they are adding about 0.7 degrees on to the raw data. In the 1930s they were not making any adjustments.
http://cdiac.ornl.gov/epubs/ndp/ushcn/rawurban3.5_pg.gif

This upwards adjustment is being made despite a large increase in urban heat effects which should be driving the adjustment the other direction.

Chances are the 1930s were warmer. If a corporate accountant manipulated data like that, he would have a good chance of being prosecuted.

Brett, I agree with you. I avoid sites like the Daily Green as I'm not a true tree hugger. Since I love England, I followed their floods closely and the BBC had a report that said the cause was mostly La Nina. It does appear that extremes of flood/drought and heat/fires everywhere are not unrelated to the overall trend of climate change but I think relating individual events to it is a trap. The pattern in Europe, with England and the north cold/wet and the south hot and fire-prone (40s C-110-120F) looks a lot like ours here, with New England on or above the jet stream while the rest of the country swelters, burns, and floods.

What's the pattern of (big) storms veering towards northern Europe about?

Patrick Henry:
re lack of hurricanes, the US east coast has been lucky since 2005, but last year set a number of records in the Pacific. Brett explained how hurricanes develop from the coast of Africa and I think he also mentioned this.
re chicken little syndrome, I take your point, but the growing millions suffering from extreme weather wouldn't thank you for ignoring their plight because the earth's history is full of disasters.
re Antarctica the trend appears to be towards melting over the long haul:
"Scientists divide the Antarctic into three zones: the east and west Antarctic ice sheets; and the Peninsula, the tongue of land which points up towards the southern tip of South America.
" "Everybody thinks that the Antarctic is shrinking due to climate change, but the reality is much more complex," says David Vaughan, a principal investigator at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, UK.
" "Parts of it appear to be thickening as a result of snowfall increases. But the peninsula is thinning at an alarming rate due to warming.
" "The West Antarctic sheet is also thinning, and we're not sure of the reason why." "
from
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4315968.stm
which may offend you but has some great maps as well as this excellent quote. Here's another with lots of facts and probably some stuff skeptics can use to support their opinions.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6727543.stm

Travis, you should check the archives here. It has been fairly conclusively shown that the data has been "adjusted" to show more warming and doesn't match the raw data. If you subtract the "adjustments" from the equation, then the 30s were the hottest decade, not the 90s, but that doesn't do the AGWers any good at all.

Could this be the cause of the anomalous warmth which shows up regularly on some parts of the Antarctic Peninsula?

Scientists Discover Undersea Volcano Off Antarctica Science Daily � ARLINGTON, Va. -- Scientists working in the stormy and inhospitable waters off the Antarctic Peninsula have found what they believe is an active and previously unknown volcano on the sea bottom....Highly sensitive temperature probes moving continuously across the bottom of the volcano revealed signs of geothermal heating of seawater. The heating was noticed especially near the edges of the feature where the freshest rock was observed. These observations, along with historical reports from mariners of discolored water in the vicinity of the submerged peak, indicate that the volcano has been active recently.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/05/040527235943.htm

Brett,

It seems that this article made Andrew one happy guy. I actually saw in the news that they were blaming the Bridge collapse on AGW. Nobody mentions that cement will weather and break down. Weather wears down and builds up mountains, but only AGW will tear down a bridge.

Andrew,
Weather events/extremes happen all the time….. you and the IPCC try to make connections of causation from isolated worldwide events and prove absolutely nothing.
I am shocked to see that the IPCC report didn’t use this bit of weather phenomena and history to offer a way to stop Global Warming:
Let’s try usuing the same logic that was used to prove that these 13 weather phenomena are the results of Global warming, on the following proof….
Fact:
Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812. On his campaign to Moscow the coldest winter in over 100 years happened. This resulted in 1,000’s of deaths due to cold weather and acute lead poisoning.
Fact:
Hitler invaded Russia in 1941. On his campaign to Moscow the coldest winter in over 100 years happened. This resulted in 1,000’s of deaths due to cold weather and acute lead poisoning.

The IPCC has concluded that there is a good chance to maybe, likely or possibly stop Global Warming!
Conclusion:
Historical records and archeological findings show that invading Russia to capture Moscow will lower temperatures to the coldest in 100 years!!!!! An added benefit would include a reduction in CO2 emissions due to the ensuing acute population reduction.
Silly? Absurd?
Absolutely, but so is the entire IPCC and CO2 reduction lunacy

Patrick,

The article you cited was written back in May 2004. Do you know if there is any more recent information on the volcano? I looked, but haven't been able to find anything interesting. I'm sure there has been another expedition by now...or at least one in the works.

The Little Ice Age (LIA) began around 1300-1350. In Europe from 1315-1318, flooding due to an almost constant barrage of North Atlantic storms caused one of the worst famines in European History. In China during this time frame, a devastating drought killed millions. The reverse held true in the 1340s, where heat and drought caused widespread hunger in Europe, and floods destroyed crops in China. Ice core samples indicated that glaciers were growing in New Zealand and South America at this time. In the 15th Century, Northern Europe was hit with 3 large cyclones in a row; the resutlant floods killed over 100,000 people in Holland alone.

By the 16th Century, as the globe continued to cool, Europe and North America were hit by decades of temperature and precipitation extremes that continued through the 19th Century.

Extreme weather isn't a sign of AGW -far from it.

Just a reminder to those with a provincial or myopic worldview: The US comprises only 2% of our planet.

Teddy,
Just to show you how much deniers manipulate the science to fit their politics, here is a graph showing the relationship between solar cycles and numbers of Republicans in the Senate.

http://www.realclimate.org/images/ssn5.jpg

As you can see, the correlation is much stronger than the correlation with temperature. Surely, this means the sun determines how right-wing the Senate becomes.

Hi All,
Here's an interesting article by Pielke, et al. related to this thread "Documentation of Uncertainties and Biases Associated with Surface Temperature Measurement Sites for Climate Change Assessment":

http://www.agry.purdue.edu/climate/dev/publications/J55.pdf

There's also been some nice investigative reporting of the USHCN:

http://ams.allenpress.com/perlserv/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1175%2FBAMS-86-4-497

exposing "microclimate exposures" on their monitoring network, i.e., placement of their thermometers near heaters, air conditioners, asphalt, etc. This has provoked response:

http://ams.allenpress.com/archive/1520-0477/86/4/pdf/i1520-0477-86-4-504.pdf

I believe both of these papers appeared in BAMS.

The USHCN info on site locations was taken down for awhile, but the uproar has forced them to put it back up. Let the investigations continue!

NEWSFLASH :

Jim Hansen and his GISS data have just been proven wrong yesterday, and it's official : 1998 is no longer the hottest year on record - it is #2 behind 1934 and followed by 1921, 2006, 1931, 1999, 1953, 1990, 1938, 1939, to round out the top ten.

Not only that but Hansen & cronies have already removed the old datasets almost as if to cover their tracks and make like it never happened. They acknowledged and thanked Steve McIntyre for his discovering this error. The entire effort was initiated by the efforts of Dr. Roger Pielke who brought to the forefront all of the problems with the weatherstations we all heard so much about a couple of months ago.

http://climatesci.colorado.edu/2007/08/08/giss-has-reranked-us-temperature-anomalies/#comments

Furthermore, Mcintyre and others have repeatedly asked Hansen for the GISS sourcecode, so they can evaluate his model, however he has consistently refused. Now why would a government funded, government employee refuse to share his research - why is he even allowed to refuse ? Is he hiding something ? Does he fear it will not stand up to the review of his PEERs (since so much is always made of "peer review" by AGW's) or his critics ?!

AGW is GOING DOWN !!! Along with its SHIP OF FOOLS !!!

Hansen made a big deal about Bush "muzzling" him and his AGW assertions - well Bush shouldn't muzzle him - HE SHOULD FIRE HIM !

Reply: I have been looking at this interesting story today with the little time I have had. I have had trouble getting to the Climate Science links on the study (maybe high traffic??). I would like to read through these links before I do a post on it. Busy day for me today on KDKA radio with the Pittsburgh area getting slammed with two huge thunderstorm complexes which brought widespread flooding, strong winds, possible tornadoes and widespread power outages. I will try to find time to get a new post on there at some point this evening. Sorry, Brett

Mark,

Great graph. Shows how some AGW types like phony climate manipulate data by artificially superimposing a short wavelength period on what is clearly a long wavelength trend. You can see the same practice all over Hansen's site.

The only trend in that Senate graph is that Republican control of the Senate is steadily increasing over time, with minor shorter wavelength oscillations (such as the current 48/48 split.)

Another vocal AGW fanatic (UK Lockwood) claims that sunspots have been decreasing since 1987. Good to see that even the phony climate boys disagree.

NEWSFLASH :

Here's the other link I meant to include; the official NASA page briefly explaining the correction and crediting McIntyre. Betcha won't see and NASA or NOAA press releases covering their "oops....... it's not as hot as we thought it was....."

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/

The ANTI-AGW community is abuzz about the revelation, and speculation that further corrections will be warranted (including 2006 - the current #4,) along with a lot more public pressure to get Hansen to give up the sourcecode of his baby.

Hey, he should welcome a little "peer review," afterall, he's the one who said "the science is overwhelming."

I'm overwhelmed alright.................

"As you can see, the correlation is much stronger than the correlation with temperature. Surely, this means the sun determines how right-wing the Senate becomes."

You've convinced me that CO2 is a problem...surely oxygen deprivation explains the mass appeal of left wing candidates.

Whether the there is global warming or not (and personally the evidence for it is overwhelming) the point being made I think was there is a subtle but important difference between an increse of extreme metrological events because of global warming and whether any given event extreme event is caused by global warming, and it is therfore irreponsible to list all the extreme events and say they are caused by global warming as if none would happen otherwise.

Also I think the evidence for global warming is in the rise of tempertures world wide and not in any extreme event.
Louis

Mark,

Love your graph!! If you want to see something even more ridiculous, check out this graph. These people actually claim there is a correlation. Amazing!!

good job bill...now if we can get some of these meteorological dudes squawking about it and use their media leverage to save mankind from wasting billions on the hocus pocus AGW...first, since they watch the weather everyday, you would think their conscience would bother them to act...my goodness, as scientists making a living in science, they should have at least have heard of earth's historical climatology and geology, and recognize a weather scam when they see it...secondly, it seems that they would also recognize the benefit of increased subscription by exposing the truth, because in business one of the most important keys to lasting success is integrity and trust...wake up you meteorologist's...the truth always prevail!!! the writing is on the wall... the agw ball is unwinding, as the above author has BILL-ed it, here comes the real science rebuttal...