NASA tells us this May was second hottest on record

May 2017's temperature was 0.05 degrees Celsius cooler than May 2016. It was just 0.01 degrees Celsius warmer than the third warmest May, which occurred in 2014.

The monthly analysis by the GISS team is assembled from publicly available data acquired by about 6,300 meteorological stations around the world, ship- and buoy-based instruments measuring sea surface temperature, and Antarctic research stations.

NASA link


How accurate can a 'global temperature' actually be? They're reporting temps into the 1/100th of a degree, this can't possibly be statistically significant. With 6300 report stations they are getting the data from, that amounts to about one thermometer per 81,000 km2. Thats about the size of Kansas! I doubt anyone could measure the temperature of their house over the course of a year and have the number be accurate to 1/100th of a degree, let alone the entire planet. Just more fear-mongering from NASA and NOAA.

NOAA's monthly global data for May should be up soon, will be interesting to see what fine print they include past the headline which screams warming.

a reply to: D8Tee

Always look for the word "exrapolate"

It's all just a game of numbers. You can spin it any way you want. In the grand scheme of things, comparison over two or three years is pretty meaningless.

a reply to: D8Tee

But, they got their headline...and that's all some people will read.

I saw the billboard out in front of the Church of Climatology that read: "The End is Near! May 2016 hotter than May 2015! Please send donations...NOW...Get $aved!"

Glad to see that NASA has moved on from space exploration and onto the important stuff, like Muslim relations, and global warming.

originally posted by: TruMcCarthy
Glad to see that NASA has moved on from space exploration and onto the important stuff, like Muslim relations, and global warming.

That is where the "funding" is now.

To be relevant and keep getting money you know.

As an animal on this planet, I endure temperature swings of over 100 degrees or more during a single year.

I'm sure we'll be fine.



That is all.

NASA make it quite clear in their methodology that GISTEMP is a "useful estimate." They'e not claiming accuracy, it's a statistical estimation method (with quantitative estimates of error in their annual and 5-year mean temperatures), that's been around since the 70's.

I highly recommend people learn about the methodology and aims of GISTEMP by clicking this NASA link *before* they make daft comments along the lines of "this can't possibly be accurate, NASA are lying", or about funding, muslims (seriously, WTF?), climate change, statistical comparisons etc etc, lest they make themselves look a bit daft... ;-)

If you think this is anything other than an educated "best-as-we-can-tell" guess, you're misunderstanding what the project is about.

a reply to: eightfold

Whatever, it's presented as valid data, where's the disclaimer that 'this temperature data is only a useful estimate' on the page I linked to?

NASA and NOAA both practice the same dirty tricks to perpetuate the alarmism. It's their agenda.

originally posted by: eightfold
muslims (seriously, WTF?)

"NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a recent interview that his "foremost" mission as the head of America's space exploration agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world. Though international diplomacy would seem well outside NASA's orbit, Bolden said in an interview with Al Jazeera that strengthening those ties was among the top tasks President Obama assigned him."

NASA’s New Mission: Boost the Muslim World’s Self-Esteem

originally posted by: TruMcCarthy

originally posted by: eightfold
muslims (seriously, WTF?)

"NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a recent interview that his "foremost" mission as the head of America's space exploration agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world. Though international diplomacy would seem well outside NASA's orbit, Bolden said in an interview with Al Jazeera that strengthening those ties was among the top tasks President Obama assigned him."

NASA’s New Mission: Boost the Muslim World’s Self-Esteem

WOW, that is just messed up, good find.

a reply to: D8Tee

In my area (outside New York) May was very cool except for few days when hot - temps were 10 deg F below normal

June started out same way .....

a reply to: [post=22367125]LogicalGraphitti[/post


No, It is the hottest on RECORD, its not a numbers game....This may had an average daily temperature higher than any other year on record....There is not a way to "Spin it". The numbers are numbers its an average, you cant change the average number. 2+2 will always be 4.

originally posted by: TruMcCarthy

originally posted by: eightfold
muslims (seriously, WTF?)

"NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a recent interview that his "foremost" mission as the head of America's space exploration agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world. Though international diplomacy would seem well outside NASA's orbit, Bolden said in an interview with Al Jazeera that strengthening those ties was among the top tasks President Obama assigned him."

NASA’s New Mission: Boost the Muslim World’s Self-Esteem

I think NASA had enough self-esteem problems of its own when it retired the space shuttle without having any replacement able to send astronauts to the ISS.

I find it interesting that Jim Oberg will often defend NASA's space record but he seems reluctant to defend their work with temperatures.

I always get a chuckle when they say highest or lowest ever recorded. Out of a hundred million years, how many have we kept global records on?

originally posted by: kurthall
a reply to: [post=22367125]LogicalGraphitti[/post


No, It is the hottest on RECORD, its not a numbers game....This may had an average daily temperature higher than any other year on record....There is not a way to "Spin it". The numbers are numbers its an average, you cant change the average number. 2+2 will always be 4.

You cannot get more precision from a data set by averaging that data, there's this thing called significant numbers that they seem to be forgetting about. There is also the matter of if 0.02 degrees is even statistically significant, which I strongly suggest it isn't.

Also, you didn't even bother to read the article, it wasn't the hottest May on record. You are easily deceived, either that or your religion has been insulted and you have jumped to it's defence. These numbers are all spin, sorry.

Huh? We always get screwed up here. May wasn't very nice at all. I am jealous.:

originally posted by: eightfold
NASA make it quite clear in their methodology that GISTEMP is a "useful estimate." They'e not claiming accuracy, it's a statistical estimation method (with quantitative estimates of error in their annual and 5-year mean temperatures), that's been around since the 70's.

I highly recommend people learn about the methodology and aims of GISTEMP by clicking this NASA link *before* they make daft comments along the lines of "this can't possibly be accurate, NASA are lying", or about funding, muslims (seriously, WTF?), climate change, statistical comparisons etc etc, lest they make themselves look a bit daft... ;-)

If you think this is anything other than an educated "best-as-we-can-tell" guess, you're misunderstanding what the project is about.

I would suggest you explain this to the people who want us to invest trillions of dollars and completely upend our economies and energy infrastructure to make a fractional dent in the "trend" shown by this "data".

a reply to: face23785

Yep, one of the main datasets thats used to garner public support for the UN takeover of the worlds economies and energy policies, yet it's just an estimate, and we shouldn't be alarmed, and certainly never make 'daft' comments or dare to question their agenda. baaa baaaa just be a good sheep and follow along like eightfold says.

NASA Goddard's Global Surface Temperature Analysis (GISTEMP) combines land surface air temperatures primarily from the GHCN-M version 3 with SSTs of the ERSSTv3b analysis into a comprehensive global surface temperature data set spanning 1880 to the present at monthly resolution, on a 2x2 degree latitude-longitude grid. As such, it is one of the main data sets used to monitor global and regional temperature variability and trends.

.05 ... i can literaly cause that change bye breathing on something

I think in almost anything .05 is called a margin of error ... id like to know if every thermomiter used was within +/-.001 ... that would be the minimum for tollerance to mesure something .05