According to NCDC’s own data, 2010 was not the warmest year in the United States, nor even a tie

Watts Up With That? ^ | January 14, 2011 | Anthony Watts

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

While there’s been a lot of attention given to the recent NOAA and NASA press releases stating that 2010 was tied for the warmest year globally, it didn’t meet that criteria in the USA by a significant margin according the the data directly available to the public from the NOAA National Climatic Data Center. (NCDC)

Here’s the graph of USA mean annual temperature from 1895-2010 produced by NCDC’s interactive climate database and graph generator, which you can operate yourself here: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/cag3/na.html

Note the rank highlighted in yellow. The pulldown menu gives you an idea of what was the warmest year in the USA from this data, arrows added:

Here’s the partial table output (you can use their online selector to output your own table) sorted by rank from NCDC web page. 1998 leads, followed by 2006, and then 1934. 2010 is quite a ways down, ranking 94th out of 116.

Climate At A Glance

Year to Date (Jan – Dec) Temperature

Contiguous United States

Year	Temperature (deg F)	Rank Based on the Time Period Selected (1895-2010)*	Rank Based on the Period of Record (1895-2010)*
1998	55.08	116	116
2006	55.04		115	115
1934	54.83	114	114
1999		54.67	113	113
1921	54.53	112	112
2001	54.41	111	111
2007	54.38	110		110
2005	54.36	109	109
1990	54.29		108	108
1931	54.29	108	108
1953		54.16	106	106
1987	54.11	105	105
1954	54.11	105	105
1986	54.09	103		103
2003	54.02	102	102
1939	54.01		101	101
2000	54.00	100	100
2002		53.94	99	99
1938	53.94	99	99
1991	53.90	97	97
1981	53.90	97		97
2004	53.84	95	95
2010	53.76		94	94
1933	53.74	93	93
1946		53.72	92	92
1994	53.64	91	91
1900	53.53	90	90

*Highest temperature rank denotes the hottest year for the period.
Lowest temperature rank denotes the coldest year for the period.

Data used to calculate Contiguous United States mean temperatures are from the USHCN version 2 data set.

Of course there is no mention of the USA temperature ranking in the recent press release from NOAA. The only mention of the USA in that PR that comes close is this:

In the contiguous United States, 2010 was the 14^th consecutive year with an annual temperature above the long-term average. Since 1895, the temperature across the nation has increased at an average rate of approximately 0.12 F per decade.

There’s no mention of the 2010 ranking for the USA temperature at all, nor any mention of the fact that 2010 was not nearly as warm as 1998, or 1934. I find that more than a little odd for an agency whose mission is to serve the American people with accurate and representative climate data.

They couldn’t find room for a sentence or two to mention the USA historical temperature rank for 2010? Apparently not.

[NormsRevenge]

Why is the media&climatists lying about things like this?

Incredible.

[aquila48]

“Lots of people do....I encountered a lot of people totally unaware at my Daughter’s Christmas party!”

You probably made some enemies by pointing out the truth.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

More ...from the comments at WUWT:

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Harold Pierce Jr says:

January 14, 2011 at 8:02 am

Temperature is not measured to +/- 0.01 deg F. In the early records of the USHCN temperature data are reported to nearest whole degree F with an implied measurement error of +/- 1 deg F. Thus all of the temperature data below 1999 should be 54 deg F.

Since measurement error is +/- 1 deg F, it is not possible to determine which is the hottest year. More importantly, the data show there has been no warming in the US since 1895!

Since these so-called climate scientists do not know how to measure temperature and use the data properly, I have concluded these guys really don’t know what they are doing and can be ignored. No experimentalist would ever make these mistakes.

I going print out the table, make an amended table, and send these with my comments to Premier Stephen Harper.

You yanks should do this for the entire record and send hard copy of the data and your comments to your members of the Congress and to your state and local politticians.

I have always said that temperature measurements are not that accurate and if data are rounded off to nearest whole degree, global warming vanishes.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Well....they didn’t yell at me.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

More....:

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Nolo Contendere says:

January 14, 2011 at 8:12 am

Thanks to RRKampen and his warmist friends for coming onto these threads and providing comic relief. Your naivite and religious fervor for the AGW nonsense always provokes a hearty laugh. Anthony, is there some way to highlight these posts with a color so they’ll be easier to find? I’m always interested in the actual scientific discussion here, but sometimes you just need a chuckle (or maybe even a guffaw).

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Special ping.

[aquila48]

My experience has been that they usually don’t yell - they just look at you like you’re a Neanderthal and stop talking to you.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Government driven propaganda.

[Chode]

do I really have to say it???

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

LOL...might of been some of that!

[onyx]

Same old story: follow the money.
Hoaxes and scams.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

More....from the comments:

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Dave Springer says:

January 14, 2011 at 7:54 am

Since this is about the climate in the U.S. it should be mentioned that there is a large net migration from the north to the south in the U.S. People desire warmer climates not colder. Actions speak louder than words. While the climate boffins are trying to convince us that warming is bad people are actually relocating from colder regions to warmer ones.

The bottom line for me isn’t whether or not the globe is warming but rather whether or not warming is desireable. All the evidence points to warming being desireable. Cold sucks.

[onyx]

*We* like weather...LOL...but we prefer nice rain and warm weather.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Exactly right....the website JoNova has had some great articles on that...with special emphasis on the Bankers....who want to trade Derivatives base on carbon credits...or something like that.

I have posted several on FR.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

More:

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d_abes in Saskatoon says:

January 14, 2011 at 8:53 am

Hey guys, as for the greatly under-instrumented Canadian Arctic. I have a serious question regarding the “warmest ever” claims. Does it matter at all that most of the “way above average” temperatures occurred in sub zero conditions?

Here
http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/plots/meanTarchive/meanT_2010.png

the DMI shows 2010 arctic temps, and they were pretty much above average for the entire “cold” period, Jan to April, Sept to Dec, but the “warm” period was almost entirely below average.

Does this have any significance in how we can analyze the results?

Thanks for your time.

[onyx]

That you have, with obama’s people deeply involved. It’s the Chicago way and the firms were set to go on the Chicago exchange. In fact, that Frankin Raines, formerly of Fannie Mae, got Fannie involved and he’s one of the folks all set to make zillions from kneecap & trade.

[Marine_Uncle]

The problem is we are dealing with garbage in so one can only expect garbage out. All their efforts become meaningless.

[NormsRevenge]

wasn’t it Ike that warned against the ‘Gubamint Media Complex’ ?

Oh wait.. uhh.. ;-)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Found this in the comments...at WUWT:

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Elizabeth says:

January 14, 2011 at 10:27 am

Apparently, a lot of that heat came from Canada: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2011/01/12/environment-2010-climate-hottest-warmest-year.html. We didn’t set any records in my region of Canada, but certainly it has been above average in others.

I have been curious about where UK’s 2010 ranked and had to do a lot of digging on the Met’s web site to finally find this story in the archives:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/archive/2011/cold-dec

If you plod through almost to the end of the 2010 stats you find: “In 2010 the UK recorded a provisional mean temperature of 8.0 °C, making it the 12th coldest year in the series, that goes back to 1910.”

I was annoyed to discover that the above was not linked in their 2010 archive section (I mean I REALLY had to dig to find this). In the archive section they are still highlighting this gem: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/pressoffice/2010/pr20101202b.html

Remember this: “The preliminary figure for January to October 2010 is 0.52 °C above the long-term average on the Met Office – Climatic Research Unit (HadCRUT3) dataset, placing it equal with the record-breaking 1998.”

The average person looking for 2010 stats will easily find this release, which omits data from rest of 2010, while the complete annual statistics are hidden elsewhere. Seems apparent this is an intentional effort to mislead the public.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Yes...he did...but he was from flyover country....