By Paul Homewood
You will recall the media hype over “record heat” in California last month.
I published some graphs showing the claims were nonsense, but promised to update them when all the data was in:
Rather than using the big city sites, loved by the media, I focussed on smaller towns in California, with long, high quality records on USHCN. They cover most of the state geographically, roughly in a north to south direction.
The graphs below plot the highest temperature recorded each summer, using the CLIMOD database of official NOAA data:
Clearly there was nothing “record breaking” about any of these sites, and at most of them there is a clear decline in temperatures since the early to mid 20thC. Probably the only exception to this is Pasadena, where the temperature station is next to the busy runway of Burbank Glendale airport!
[Livermore still has no data for August, but according to CLIMOD the airport site there reached 108F]
Two other notes.
I gather the media is now claiming that although temperatures may not be any higher than the past in California, heatwaves last longer and stretch into spring and autumn.
This is another lie. Below is the plot of the number of days 100F and over in Los Angeles for the full year (UHI not withstanding!!). This year, by the way has only seen one 100F day.
Even with the UHI at Downtown LA, there is no increasing trend in duration of heatwaves, which if anything seem to have peaked in the 1950-90 period.
Secondly, I have tracked down the weather station where the “record temperature” of 121F claimed at Woodland Hills was recorded:
It is located close to a line of scrubby bushes, with trees close by as well. Looks like a bit of a sun trap to me.
