- JoNova - https://joannenova.com.au -

Hottest July in 4000 years? Not even the hottest July since *2014* according to satellites

NOAA has a press release out being picked up around the world. For example, the DailyMail, UK, is saying July was the hottest month since records began in 1880 as heatwaves swept the Earth’s countries and oceans. Other silly tabloids have headlines about this being the hottest July in 4,000 years, as if we have even the remotest idea what the average July global temperature was in the days of Plato.

Better data shows July this year is the hottest since way back in…  2014. It’s not 4,000 years, not 135 years, it’s the hottest July since the last one.

We only have 30 years of good climate data: the satellites tell us the pause is real, and last month’s summer temperatures is not a record anything. According to the UAH and RSS global satellites, lower troposphere averages for July 2014 were 0.30C and 0.34C, compared to July 2015 of 0.28C. Even, June 2015 was hotter (UAH, 0.35C; RSS, 0.39C).
July 2015 is not even the hottest month since June.
UAH, Hottest July Temperature, 2015,

But some journalists will believe anything. Anthony Sharman, sports journalist, News.com, Australia, thinks we know the global temperature of the July that Jesus was born. Who’s a gullible journalist then? (And who was that gullible editor?) We have estimates of the temperature of whole years circa one AD, but we don’t have “monthly” data. Not too many thermometers. How good are those tree-rings? Check out this fantasy headline:

“July could have been the hottest month in 4,000 years, climate scientists say. ” News.com Australia

Yes July could have been the hottest month in 4,000 years, and it could have been the first month Earth was visited by aliens — there is no evidence for that either.

Anthony Sharman read one press release and thinks he knows more than what he got from the cereal box:

CLIMATE change is real. Climate change is happening. The world is getting warmer. There was no global pause. This thing is not slowing down.

These are the inescapable conclusions for anyone who sources their information beyond cereal boxes, internet forums and oil industry spokespeople…

It’s no-holds-barred, pure agitprop. (I’ll bet he feels smug today, eh? 😉 ). Do leave a comment to help them get past their fawning commitment to publish chumpy unresearched propaganda.

We know the world was hotter 8000 years ago, and 130,000 year ago, and for millions of years while life on Earth evolved.

Greenland temperatures, ice cores, holocene period, paleoclimate

Current temperatures “might” be around the -31 line. What we know for sure is that current temperatures are not unusual.

Yes, the graph above is “only Greenland” but the holocene was hotter all over the world. (6,000  boreholes were drilled all over the world — Huang and Pollack, 2008). Go on, deny this.

Borehole temperatures last 20,000 years
Huang and Pollack 2008

 

The further back we go the more climate variability there is. Today’s temperatures are balmy, mild, good, and nice for humans.

 

Vostok Ice Core, Eemian, paleoclimate, history, Temperature, global

Present temperatures are around the red flat line at 0C.

There’s more information on the Vostok Ice Cores here.

Most of the last 65 million years was hotter. Go on, Panic Now!

Poor Sharman. Gullible.

About Anthony Sharman

Ant covers a mixture of sport, news, weather and everything in between. A Walkley-award winner and author, Ant has worked in magazines, papers and digital and loves writing everything from in-depth features to quick, fun stories with a quirky edge. A husband and father of two, Ant farms chickens in his backyard, a practice which requires almost exactly the same skillset as working in a digital newsroom. Every week he joins the Fox Sports news team to discuss the unique news.com.au take on sport.

h/t Steve W, Colin, Mal.

9.3 out of 10 based on 153 ratings