Don’t confuse us in the National Weather Service with NOAA. Yes, we are part of NOAA, but the NOAA hierarchy marches to their own drummer. NOAA is not well respected by the NWS rank and file. The NWS deals with shorter range forecasting, and does not get involved with climate change issues for the most part. Most of the NWS operational forecasters don’t buy into the man-made climate change hype. Is there climate change? Of course. There has always been, and always will be. Climate never has been a constant.
As a NWS guy can you explain how the daily climate report "Departure from Normal" and "Degree Days" are calculated? I follow the weather for La Crosse, Wisconsin. In the Daily Climate Report the Observed Values (today's high and low) appear to be most often rounded up in the Average Value. The "Normal Values" appear to be rounded down in the Average Values. That, of course, makes the Departure from Normal value higher than the data actually supports. That, in turn, supports the theory of global warming.
Am I missing something? I'll confess that the rounding is not perfectly consistent, which might be a way of creating a little wiggle room if someone is looking over your data.
Thanks!