Not that we've felt much of it up here in the Great Land, where a good portion of the population wouldn't mind a little global warming now and then, but it seems it's been a hot summer. Most of the country expects hot weather in the summer, I grant you, and most years, we get what we expect. We have friends who live in places like Richmond, VA, Southern California, and even Phoenix, Arizona, and those places have seen some really hot weather this year.
Because, you know, it's summertime. It gets hot in the summer, and this year was hotter than normal. Because the weather changes, and nobody seems to be able to predict it more than a day or so out.
Some are, nevertheless, claiming that 2024 was among the hottest of all summers, possibly leading to the warmest year ever measured.
Summer 2024 sweltered to Earth’s hottest on record, making it even more likely that this year will end up as the warmest humanity has measured, European climate service Copernicus reported Friday.
And if this sounds familiar, that’s because the records the globe shattered were set just last year as human-caused climate change, with a temporary boost from an El Nino, keeps dialing up temperatures and extreme weather, scientists said.
The northern meteorological summer — June, July and August — averaged 16.8 degrees Celsius (62.24 degrees Fahrenheit), according to Copernicus. That’s 0.03 degrees Celsius (0.05 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the old record in 2023. Copernicus records go back to 1940, but American, British and Japanese records, which start in the mid-19th century, show the last decade has been the hottest since regular measurements were taken and likely in about 120,000 years, according to some scientists.
As you've probably already guessed, I have some questions.
First, the summer of 1933, as I've previously reported, was actually warmer than 2024; my father used to tell me stories of that summer, his tenth. I grant you that El Nino affects the weather, especially in the western reaches of North and South America. We had a rather warm, dry spring here in the Great Land, at least by our standards, although I've never been able to link that to El Nino or the lack thereof. But note that it's a temporary boost - in other words, not worth dramatically changing our lifestyle for.
But here's where the questions come in. Part of this assertion is based on the reading of American, British, and Japanese records dating back to the mid-19th century. Here are my questions:
- Where were these American, British, and Japanese readings taken? In a city? In the country? At sea?
- What instruments were in use in, say, 1850 (you don't get any more mid-19th century than that), and how were they calibrated?
- How was the data normalized across all the readings to take into account the locations where temps were taken, and so on?
All this seems decidedly shaky, and that wouldn't matter much, except for the fact that climate scolds like the Doom Pixie and her jet-setting ilk want to persuade - no, demand we dramatically change our modern, comfortable technological lifestyle to address this fussy assertion.
Yes, the climate changes. It always has. It always will. Do humans have an effect? Yes, along with the sun, ocean currents, volcanos - things that make us seem pretty puny by comparison. Through most of this planet's 4.6 billion-year history, it's been warmer than it is now when we are, I might point out, in the latest interglacial period. That means that in a hundred thousand years - an eyeblink in geologic time - the place I sit now may be under a mile of ice.
Previously on RedState: Don't Panic! It's Hot, but It's Been Hotter - a Historical Perspective
The Hottest June in American History? No, It's Not 2024 - It Was 1933
Even today's readings raise questions. Where are they taken? Are these readings in urban heat islands? At airports, where the immediate area is surrounded by tarmac, which retains heat and is occupied by aircraft producing hot exhaust? How many readings are taken in cool, green, leafy rural environments as a control?
I've never been able to find an answer to that last question. Even here, the temps at our tiny local airport, where the weather station is, are usually a few degrees warmer than the reading out here in the woods a few miles away.
It's all very thin. Too thin to do away with the technology that makes our modern lives, well, livable.
It's summer. It's hot out. Stay in the air conditioning if you can. Grab a cold drink. All of these things are possible to you because of the miracle that is our modern technological lifestyle - the same lifestyle that the climate scolds would like to deny us (but not themselves). Winter will be around soon enough.
This seems appropriate.
