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Even Deniers' Favorite Data Set Shows September Broke Heat Records [1]

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Date: 2023-10-18  

Once upon a time, Drs. Roy Spencer and John Christy from the University of Alabama-Huntsville (UAH) were the last scientific hope for climate deniers, as their satellite data set supposedly showed no global warming. Then other, better scientists repeatedly corrected the many errors in their work that all conveniently lowered the warming these contrarian scientists "found" in the UAH satellite data, until eventually even their satellites showed an unmistakable warming trend.

Instead of adjusting their stance on climate change in light of their newly accurate evidence, though, the pair has spent years doubling down on denial .

Now, as 2023 looks to almost certainly be the hottest year on record , even Spencer has to admit that it's getting hot. In his latest blog post , he reports that September was 0.9°C warmer than the 1991-2020 global average (which itself is warmer than the 20th century average!) That data apparently "establishes a new monthly high temperature record since satellite temperature monitoring began in December, 1978."

Beyond the global record, there are also 27 regional averages that the UAH team routinely monitor, and, lo and behold, "so many of the regions saw record high temperature anomaly values (departures from seasonal norms) in September, 2023, that it's easier to just list all the regions and show how September ranked out of the 538 month satellite record."

According to Spencer — the last great hope for denying climate change — last month was the hottest in 538 months across 11 of the regions he split the data into: the globe, global land, global ocean, Northern Hemisphere land, Southern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere land, Southern Hemisphere ocean, northern extratropical land, southern extratropics, southern extratropical land, and southern extratropical ocean.

Spencer didn't really elaborate on what that means but did include a qualifier shifting blame onto "the approaching El Nino [sic]" that is "superimposed upon a long-term warming trend," which is an oblique way to say that warming is in fact causing heat records to fall like dominoes in exactly the way they would if fossil fuel pollution were causing climate change ( and it definitely is ).

Indeed, before even showing the updated graph that deniers love because it downplays warming by looking only at Spencer’s and Christy’s flawed satellite data, Spencer included a meme saying "we're gonna need a bigger graph" because the temperatures are on their way to blowing past the top of the chart.

Even Spencer’s commenters are not exactly thrilled with his findings. "This is not going to be a good look on the UAH monthly chart" that another climate blog has "recently added to its side-bar" commented TheFinalNail, adding, "Oh dear."

“Oh dear” indeed — though we're not holding our breath that this is the 'final nail' in climate denial, as much as it should be!

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