On September 15 a news release was issued by NASA and confirmed by NOAA that August was the warmest August on record.
I tried to look into the data and found the source was a preliminary result of sea surface temperatures for August, which looked ominous indeed
On Sep 9 NOAA issued the following report:
It showed how the data was taken that led to the sudden rise in global temperatures.
We can clearly see the warmer and colder areas, with the read areas (warmer) totally dominating the blue (colder) areas.
However, in this data set, the temperatures in the polar regions are not included, hence conclusions are drawn from incomplete data.
When these areas are included August 2014 was not the warmest August on record, It wad the ninth warmest August and the 89th warmest month on record.
These ate the tabulated data from NASA.
GLOBAL Temperature Anomalies in 0.01 degrees Celsius base period: 1951-1980
sources: GHCN-v3 1981-08/2014 (meteorological stations only)
using elimination of outliers and homogeneity adjustment
Notes: 1941 DJF = Dec 1940 - Feb 1941 ; ***** = missing
AnnMean
Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec J-D D-N DJF MAM JJA SON Year
1981 61 58 68 50 32 39 51 52 28 10 22 48 43 41 46 50 47 20 1981
1982 12 25 -2 3 25 5 20 9 9 2 11 40 13 14 28 9 11 8 1982
1983 51 40 46 40 48 28 21 49 57 31 32 17 38 40 44 45 33 40 1983
1984 25 16 38 17 48 5 19 27 26 22 10 4 21 22 19 34 17 20 1984
1985 32 6 26 18 23 28 7 36 26 16 9 16 20 19 14 22 24 17 1985
1986 39 50 38 41 31 16 15 21 2 12 12 20 25 24 35 37 17 9 1986
1987 43 54 24 39 30 55 59 25 35 35 31 57 41 37 39 31 46 34 1987
1988 67 49 57 50 63 60 45 56 56 53 15 36 51 52 58 57 54 41 1988
1989 27 44 47 42 22 18 47 50 53 43 21 36 38 38 36 37 38 39 1989
1990 51 42 86 62 52 46 64 43 30 53 52 47 52 51 43 67 51 45 1990
1991 49 61 48 72 42 70 63 57 61 33 31 33 52 53 52 54 63 42 1991
1992 50 40 53 26 27 30 8 13 -6 7 1 24 23 24 41 35 17 1 1992
1993 39 41 34 30 28 26 39 22 10 22 8 21 27 27 35 31 29 13 1993
1994 40 8 27 53 27 57 38 24 45 41 49 43 38 36 23 36 40 45 1994
1995 56 89 51 58 38 50 64 58 45 67 52 40 56 56 63 49 57 54 1995
1996 42 60 46 48 35 35 53 77 40 32 49 52 47 46 47 43 55 40 1996
1997 49 55 66 39 44 66 34 44 49 60 69 68 54 52 52 50 48 59 1997
1998 71 118 84 83 95 104 91 86 61 66 65 81 84 83 86 87 93 64 1998
1999 69 86 48 43 51 63 64 54 63 62 57 53 59 62 79 47 60 61 1999
2000 32 79 70 76 56 67 63 60 58 34 49 47 58 58 55 67 63 47 2000
Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec J-D D-N DJF MAM JJA SON Year
2001 59 63 70 62 74 66 71 64 70 60 85 72 68 66 57 69 67 72 2001
2002 96 91 113 81 85 65 82 67 82 64 69 53 79 80 86 93 71 71 2002
2003 90 74 71 69 87 64 64 87 81 88 65 85 77 74 72 76 72 78 2003
2004 71 92 87 76 49 64 24 59 60 80 87 66 68 69 83 70 49 76 2004
2005 96 88 93 85 76 82 80 75 98 101 90 90 88 86 84 84 79 96 2005
2006 77 92 81 68 52 77 67 82 73 84 86 92 78 77 86 67 75 81 2006
2007 124 93 92 95 94 67 79 87 84 81 70 71 86 88 103 94 78 78 2007
2008 49 46 90 66 58 53 71 41 82 75 81 76 66 65 56 71 55 79 2008
2009 76 77 67 76 80 83 86 86 92 73 85 76 80 80 76 74 85 83 2009
2010 95 106 114 101 97 88 75 84 88 96 103 72 93 94 92 104 82 96 2010
2011 73 67 78 84 65 72 91 96 79 83 75 78 78 78 70 75 87 79 2011
2012 60 56 70 80 95 70 57 85 88 95 94 70 77 77 65 81 71 92 2012
2013 97 76 86 65 70 89 67 80 101 86 87 84 82 81 81 74 79 91 2013
2014 95 63 75 90 103 78 74 80 **** **** **** **** **** *** 80 89 78 **** 2014
Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec J-D D-N DJF MAM JJA SON Year
Divide by 100 to get changes in degrees Celsius (deg-C).
Multiply that result by 1.8(=9/5) to get changes in degrees Fahrenheit (deg-F).
Best estimate for absolute global mean for 1951-1980 is 14.0 deg-C or 57.2 deg-F,
so add that to the temperature change if you want to use an absolute scale
(this note applies to global annual means only, J-D and D-N !)
Example -- Table Value : 40
change : 0.40 deg-C or 0.72 deg-F
abs. scale if global annual mean : 14.40 deg-C or 57.92 deg-F
The September 15 release was done by the political arm of NASA, and was timed for maximum impact on the United Nations Climate Summit one week later.
The final Aug Data was never taken into consideration even though it was available.
They did not want to release it was the ninth warmest August ever.
For good measure NOAA released it was the warmest summer ever. In reality it was maybe the seventh warmest summer ever.
Do NASA and NOAA lie wilfully? No, they just want to release selected data in such a way as to safeguard future funding.
On September 23 or so President Obama will address the United Nations' Climate Summit and proclaim "This August was the warmest August ever" or words to that effect, pointing to the NOAA and NASA press releases.
Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment. 