Backstory on the new surfacestations paper ( Anthony Watts of "Watts Up With That?")

Watts Up With That? ^ | July 29, 2012 | Anthony Watts

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I’m a bit burnt out, so this is a just a few notes to quench some speculations about Steve McIntyre’s role and to help everyone understand what this week has been like.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

From the comments:

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S. Geiger says:

July 29, 2012 at 10:11 pm

“After Muller could not find strong signal that we knew must be there by physics of heat sinks…and neither could we in Fall et al 2011, we went looking, and discovered the new Leroy 2010 classification system and WMO ISO approval.”

Red flag, IMO. Researchers looking for a signal that “we know must be there” makes things ripe for confirmation bias. I truly hope that all involved live up to the standards that us skeptics so commonly cite when reviewing the works of others….namely to look to shoot holes in your own work; try to find areas where your own bias may be affecting results…etc.

Aside from all that, kudos for the seemingly very comprehensive work….and continuation of the unique crowd-sourcing methods.

Any word on where this will be submitted for publishing?

REPLY: Understood, but please think about the physics of heat sinks, specifically when it comes to Tmin and I think yuo’ll see where we were coming from. Confirmation bias is a huge problem in AGW science, and if this new ratings system had not revealed the solution, I would have had to accede there was no effect. Persistence paid off. – Anthony

[Excellence]

Big headline in our local paper; “Prominent climate-change denier now admits he was wrong”.