[Omnivore-Dan]

“We have just experienced the 10 warmest years on record,” And just how far back does the data go? When did record keeping start? More importantly, how accurate was data before 100 years ago? A hundred years ago there was vast areas of the U.S. that was hardly populated. I’m sure there were storms, tornadoes, heat waves, etc., that were never recorded. Also, I wish they would stop recording temperatures at airports where the tarmac and all of the buildings retain heat. Inflated numbers for sure.

[Sacajaweau]

Even more importantly, how many data points were there in the back years and how many are there now?

But the bottom line is....no matter what we do...no one can ever prove that any of it made a difference. It simply isn't provable.

[zeestephen]

Re: "And just how far back does the data go?"

For global temps, the data go back to 1979, when the first global temperature satellite was launched...

https://wattsupwiththat.com/uah-version-6/

The satellite data is reasonably accurate - IF - you agree that the Earth can have an average temperature.

The satellites measure air temps at the 14,000 feet level, which avoids most human (urban heat islands) and local weather deviations.

The satellite temps have been verified by thousands and thousands of weather balloon instruments over the last 46 years.

In addition, the deviation of air temp at 14,000 feet has a high correlation to the deviation at sea level.

However, there have been (at least) three different satellites gathering data, so trying to average possible errors and deviations is a very complex problem.

The good news is that the same two college professors (University of Alabama- Huntsville) who designed the global temp theory are still in charge of the data. They never make ANY political statements at all, and they do TOTAL data dumps EVERY month.

On the other hand, the last 10 years have been conspicuously warmer than the first 36 years.

According to the two professors, the major reason is a decline in cloud cover, plus two unusually warm El Ninos.

Naturally, there are many different theories about what happened to cloud cover and El Ninos.

Here is a smaller version of the 46 year record...