WhatFinger


Looking back through the decades, we find lots of variability but very few trends.

The Undeniable Fact of Moose Jaw's Unchanging Climate



As an editorial in the Moose Jaw Times Herald claims, "Climate change is happening, and it won't be denied." Without any irony, the article states that "without an ounce of hyperbole, climate change is the single greatest issue the generations of age have to drive change and have to address right now." No hyperbole?

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No significant trend in global temperatures for almost the past two decades

Well, there has been no significant trend in global temperatures for almost the past two decades, and to note that climate models have performed with terrible predictivity would be an understatement. Furthermore, a mountain of evidence is accumulating showing that many irresponsible members of the scientific community and their media supporters have been inaccurately reporting on climate trends, thereby leading the charge of "misinformation, faulty science, and propaganda." In such situations, it is clear that climate change is most certainly not "the single greatest issue" of our time. Climate change is dwarfed in importance by real and far more pressing issues, such as the rise of radical Islam and the ongoing march of anti-democratic governments worldwide -- Russia's invasion of Ukraine and China's expansionism in the western Pacific Ocean are but two examples among many. Editorials such as these abound in the media: lots of handwaving, and very short on details and facts. Residents of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, may be interested to know how little climate change has occurred in their community during the past few decades. Unfortunately, that basic information was left out of the editorial, so I'll consider it here. There has been no significant trend in Moose Jaw's annual average temperature during the past three decades. Actually, the correlation is negative towards cooling, not warming. No significant trends during any of the seasons, either. None of the individual months have a significant trend in their average temperatures except for May -- which, again, is cooling instead of warming. As well, there are no significant trends in maximum temperatures on an annual or seasonal basis, or in 10 of the 12 individual months (May is decreasing, September is increasing -- call that a wash). For minimum temperatures, we again have no trends on annual or seasonal bases, significant decreasing (aka, cooling) trends for May and August, with no other monthly significant trends. For precipitation, it is more difficult to figure out what is going on, since the latest data available in the Environment Canada Adjusted and Homogenized Canadian Climate Data database is from 2007, and there are a number of gaps in the historical record. But if we go back to when records start in 1895, there has not been a single month with a significant trend in precipitation. Not one. Nor is there a significant trend in annual precipitation since the 19th century. Thus, what really can't be denied is the general absence of climate change in the Moose Jaw area over recent decades -- and in some cases, going all the back into the late 1800s.


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Sierra Rayne -- Bio and Archives

Sierra Rayne holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry and writes regularly on environment, energy, and national security topics. He can be found on Twitter at @srayne_ca


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