“I haven’t heard any claims beating this in this supposed summer of all summers”, was the message in an email from a reader of this blog and this link that includes:
“There are a small number of towns in Australia whose names have such a potency and such a power of association that they automatically conjure up images. The name ‘Marble Bar’ is synonymous with mining, isolation and, most importantly, heat.
It is known as ‘the hottest town in Australia’ a fact which is still recorded by the Guinness Book of Records. For 161 consecutive days to 20 April 1924 the temperature in the town never dropped below 100F (37.8C). This record still stands after nearly seventy years.
And they wouldn’t have had airconditioning back in 1924.
As the newcomer to hell said to the devil “Don’t try scaring me with hellfire – I’m from Marble Bar”.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
The following comment is from Phil Done, unable to post for himself because this blogs sometimes blocks seemingly honest comments on the basis of ‘questionable’ content:
“A juicy plump cherry bursting with flavour.
Yes but the west Aussies haven’t gotten into the climate change mood yet. The Perth contrarian heat ink island is cooling down the state. Outback Queensland is much better at generating hot air.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200603/s1582238.htm
Summer weather records tumble in western Qld –
Many western Queensland centres have broken long-standing weather records for summer temperatures.
It follows the release of official figures from the weather bureau showing Queensland experienced its hottest summer on record.
The bureau says maximum temperatures for summer averaged more than 40 degrees in several centres, including Birdsville, Windorah, Bedourie and Boulia on 41 degrees and Quilpie, Winton and Longreach 40.
That was two to four degrees higher than normal.
New records were set for the average maximum summer temperatures in several centres, including Mitchell, Cunnamulla Barcaldine and Windorah – while record average minimum temperatures were set in Tambo, Longreach, Winton and Charleville.
Duty of care statement on bragging rights to the blog readers:
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=175
Readers may also be interested in the spatial temperature map at
http://www.bom.gov.au/announcements/media_releases/climate/change/20060104.shtml
from Phil Done.”
Jennifer,
A simple fact showing the climate mood has actually physically cooled in Perth while the latest global (sat and surface) data show WA 2005 to have been much cooler than 2004 see warwick’s maps.
Perth’s coolest summer since 1959/60
http://www.bom.gov.au/announcements/media_releases/wa/20060301b.shtml
When this was announced on the ABC regional service in Country WA, not one word of global warming was mentioned. Strange. Seems the AGW belief is only proclaimed when the data supports it, but when contradictory data are produced – silence.
Most scientists would take that contradictory data as scientific falsification of the hypothesis, but then, as you noted elsewhere toda it isn’t science, so contradictory data are ignored.
Reminds me of the radiocarbon issue with Archaelogists – when the RC dates agree with the chronology they are placed in the main text. If there is a slight discrepancy the RC dates are placed in a footnote and if widely discordant, are ignored.
Phil Done is (again) trying to muddy the waters, the fact remains that “..for 161 consecutive days to 20 April 1924 the temperature in the town (Marble Bar) never dropped below 100F (37.8C)”
Also the record for highest recorded temperature was at Cloncurry,53 ºC 1889.
For the states NSW is 50.0°C at Wilcannia 1939 and 50.7°C at Oodnadatta SA 1960. Bourke recorded 52.8°C in 1877 but the recording method has been questioned.
How many cherries can a cherry picker pluck?
Who cares – it’s a plucked cherry not a trend.
Read the RC post I listed above – oh that’s right – last time you said it too hard. Should have stayed in school then eh.
And have a look at the spatial map of the Bureau.
WA is clearly an exception.
So do you think that because of global warming you won’t have any climate variability ever again and that the whole world will warm equally at the same time. Jeez – no wonder you don’t get it. Give up now then.
The long term trends with most of the world’s terrestrial measurements, satellite monitoring, ocean temperatures are unambiguously going one way in overall trend. You can cherrypick some exceptions. And what explanations can you forward to explain this trend ? Anything? I know – it’s the godess called “Nature”.
P.S. Google some more – the accuracy of the Cloncurry measurement is disputed ! Sort of gets into the territory Badinda – Tully wettest town dispute. (A worry).
Temperature across western Australia have warmed marked since 1910 – http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/silo/reg/cli_chg/trendmaps.cgi . Since 1950 most areas have warmed except a small region of the inland – this is remarkable given the massive increase in rainfall which has occured. Each of the last 4 years have been much warmer than the 1961-90 average, and 2005 was much warmer than 2004.
Global warming does not mean that below average temperatures will not occur, it just means that they will occur with ever decreasing frequency. We all deserve to be spared trumped-up silly strawman arguments that a cool day/month/year at Perth (or where ever) is inconsistent with global warming.
David
PS
Rog the Cloncurry and Bourke records are not compatible with current observations.
David,
your reference to the BOM http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/silo/reg/cli_chg/trendmaps.cgi
is a rainfall map, not temperature.
David,
And I asked for a mean temperature map but BOM says no data are available.
http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/silo/reg/cli_chg/trendmaps.cgi
Louis you total watje
No wonder we worry about stats son.
There is a thing called the internet where people email, chat, blog and look at dirty pictures. One of its popular features is a phenomenon called the World Wide Web which uses a hypertext markup language to produce colourful and informative pages of output. Web pages may have little drop-down boxes to make selections.
Given David had asssessed yourself as a cool hep-to-the-jive cat he probably assumed you would find the rainfall/temperature selection box and the time period box. It’s like when you say “please open the door” – most people don’t supply a manual or an FAQ.
Ender will come around and show you if you’re still lost.
I’m from Perth and I can confirm that this summer has been very cool, but it is also worth noting that our summer here seems to be getting later every year. It’s already March and it’s still getting warmer rather than cooler, while December and January were very cool by our standards.
David
I erred – forgot to enter in the time period, assuming that changing one parameter would affect the display.
My apologies.
Ironic,
one selects 1970 to present of the BOM Australia Temperature and we get a hotspot at the QLD/NSW/SA border, plus a cooling in WA.
Definitely a warming unrelated to CO2 but clearly something associated with a geological input.
This is the danger you face phil when you start goading people with your inanities – instead of glossing over your rants we suddenly decide tio look into it lot more closely only to find that Phil has shot himself in his foot again.
Unless of course that part of OZ has a peculiar concetration of CO2 at that locality.
I would rather suspect it might be due to a subsurface hotspot.
This should give you enough data to gallop off on another of your petulant rants?
Louis – are you utterly crazy at crazyworld. Have a look at the maximum and minimum temperature maps for that period. Ask anyone in the street what they think. They might say most of the place seems to have warmed.
If you think CO2 will warm everything equally everywhere and all climate variability will cease you’re a nitwit.
CO2 hotpots – are you smoking that Amsterdam hooch?
Phil,
I have never stated that “all climate variability will cease” which makes you the nitwit not I.
1.10 EXTREME MAXIMUM TEMPERATURES
New South Wales Wilcannia 50.0
Caveat:
There are also numerous extreme high temperatures which have been recorded prior to about 1910 using non-standard instrumentation, most notably a reading of 53.1 at Cloncurry in January 1889. It is likely that this will be struck from the official record in the near future. A discussion of the evidence behind this may be found in:
Trewin, B.C. (1997). Another look at Australia’s highest temperature. Aust.Met.Mag. 46. 251-256.
(Trewin works for the Bureau !)
http://www.earthsci.unimelb.edu.au/~blair/extremes/staterecord.html
I am not sure of your point Phil; are you saying that records could be inaccurate?
I had been previously informed on that issue of records that many of those old instruments may have had exposure problems. So the famous Cloncurry record measurement is “under review” as Blair Trewin indicates. See reference above. If it’s a pub bet as records can be – it’s worth emailing the Bureau’s National Climate Centre for up-to-date advice their own website notwithstanding.
Again I also say it is well worth reading the following advice on the issue of records (including the comments).
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=175
The statement that the temperature in Marble Bar Western Australia never went below 37.8C in that period in 1924 is incredible because then it never cooled at night