What determines surface temperature at any spot on earth?

Apart from a tad of geothermal heat and a wisp of heat from nuclear power generators, every bit of surface energy (including coal and biomass) comes directly or indirectly from the sun. There is no other source of surface heat – everything else just stores, releases or re-directs solar energy.

Surface heat is maximised when the sun is directly overhead, near a peak in the sunspot cycle and when Earth’s orbit comes closest to the sun (perihelion). The hottest places on earth will be found near the equator, after mid-day, in mid-summer, at perihelion and when there are no clouds in the sky to reflect solar radiation. Temperature will be maximised when there is no cooling wind and no nearby surface water or moist soils to cool things by evaporation. Since higher temperature also occurs at lower altitudes, one of the hottest places on earth is Death Valley, a desert below sea level, where the temperature can reach 56 °C on a mid-summer afternoon.

Frigid temperatures are found near the poles, where solar energy is weak. The coldest place on Earth is Vostok at high altitude in Antarctica where the air is very dry and where the temperature can go as low as minus 89 °C with a cloudless sky in the dead of winter.

Since both extremes could occur simultaneously, Earth’s maximum daily temperature range is thus up to 145 °C. But at any single place, the diurnal variation is more likely to be about 15-40 °C.

Carbon dioxide has no effect on any of the above temperature drivers – it generates no new heat, cannot affect latitude, solar orbits, sun spots, altitude, season, time of day, clouds or the proximity of water. All it can possibly do is encourage plant growth, and intercept, absorb and redirect a tiny bit radiant energy passing either way between the sun, Earth’s surface and space. But that effect is almost exhausted at current levels of carbon dioxide. Doubling the carbon dioxide content from 400 ppm to 800 ppm (which may take the next 100 years) might possibly increase surface temperatures by up to 2 °C – not even noticeable compared to the daily temperature ranges we cope with now.

Everyone can feel the powerful warmth of the rising sun, the variations between summer and winter, the moderating effect of clouds and the shock of hot and cold winds.

But even if carbon dioxide levels doubled overnight, most people on earth would not notice any difference.

More, as well as:

• Water is the Weather Wildcard
• Heatwave Hype and Wind Wisdom
• Heatwaves in Australia are Nothing New
• The Long Retreat from Copenhagen
• My How the Money Rolls in

Read the full report: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/sun-water-winds-and-weather.pdf [PDF, 52KB]

Keywords: Temperature, sun, solar cycles, water, evaporation, clouds, wind, feedbacks, carbon dioxide, weather, heatwaves, data manipulation, green energy subsidies.

We hear continually that “The Science is Settled”. It is easy to find proof that the science of man-made global warming is not settled. Professor Hayden, in a short submission to the EPA demolishes the IPCC science consensus.

He also demolishes the “tipping point” scares and suggests that a warmer world may be a better world anyway.

Read Howard Hayden’s short sharp report:
http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/hayden-to-jackson.pdf [PDF, 129MB]

About Howard (Cork) Hayden:

He writes and publishes The Energy Advocate, a monthly newsletter (on real paper) about energy. For a sample copy contact: corkhayden@comcast.net

He is the author of the books:

Bass Ackwards: How Climate Alarmists Confuse Cause with Effect
A Primer on Renewable Energy
A Primer on CO2 and Climate

These and other books are available from Vales Lake Publishing, LLC: www.valeslake.com

The Energy Advocate:

www.energyadvocate.com
PO Box 7609
Pueblo West, CO 81007

“People will do anything to save the world… except take a course in science.”
“Chromoergic psychosis: The delusion that energy has a color, usually green.”

Heat waves are nothing new.

It is often said that many people do not read the minutes of the last meeting.

For days now we have been hearing, about “unprecedented heat” and record temperatures. Naturally the government science and media arms are quick to blame carbon dioxide or man-made global warming for this (and every other unusual weather event).

Three comments:

Firstly, when the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) reports a “record” temperature, they mean “since 1910 in BOM’s adjusted records”. They ignore all records earlier than 1910 on the excuse such records were not taken in the shade according to their method.

Secondly, they have “adjusted” their raw data for various reasons, and the adjustments have generally “cooled the past” thus increasing the apparent warming trend, and increasing the chances that a recent heat wave will produce “highest ever temperatures”.

Thirdly, neither the BOM nor their lazy media megaphones have learnt to look at the past as recorded in newspapers of the times.

Rick Dean has had such a look and his report, taken verbatim from newspapers of the times, shows that heatwaves (and associated bushfires) are nothing new. He records at least 24 heatwaves in Australia in the period 1886 to 1929. For example:

In 1895 at Bourke there were 66 deaths from heat apoplexy over a period of six weeks, during which time the heat was never under 114 degrees shade heat and, what was worse, never under 100 degrees at night. The maximum temperature recorded under true shade conditions was 128 DegF (53.3 DegC). In Sydney in Jan 1896 the temperature reached 131 DegF in the shade (55 DegC). Publications at the times recorded many earlier heat waves back to 1791.

Read more from this fascinating look at past weather extremes: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/heatwaves-nothing-new.pdf [PDF, 52 KB]

The moon causes tides on Earth. The most obvious ones are in the oceans, but they also occur in the atmosphere and also in ground water and even in the crustal material.

The moon also reflects solar radiation, maximized at full moon and minimized at new moon.

These effects are also maximised at perigee, when the moon is closest to the earth.

Ken Ring is a New Zealand based private weather forecaster. Ken provided the following brief summary of the importance of the Moon on Earth’s weather.

The Effects of the Moon on Earth’s Weather

By Ken Ring

Phase

The moon is responsible for the daily atmospheric tide, which changes air height according to the inconstant position of the moon. When the moon is above the horizon the air-tide is “in” and when it sets below the horizon and until the moon rises the air-tide is “out”.

This changing air height varies ground temperatures throughout the day, depending on the moon phase. It is well known that the full moon increases the temperatures on earth:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1309&dat=19950319&id=UB9OAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ZRMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5517,3976094

When the moon is out of the sky in daylight hours (1stQ moon dawn-noon, full moon time dusk-dawn, and lastQ time noon-dusk), the sun’s heat can reach the ground more intensely, with no absorbent air to block its path.

When the moon is out of the sky at night (lastQ dusk to midnight, new moon (midnight-dawn), and 1stQ midnight-dawn), the airtide is “out” letting in more of the heavier cold air from the edge of space which cools the ground more than otherwise.

In summer the full moon time is the hottest of the month, and consequently is around the time of the month when tropical cyclones form, because the water within 6 deg of the equator can be heated to 26-28degC which is required for sufficient evaporation to occur that will provide enough to fuel the cyclonic system. The new moon is also a cyclone breeder, because the new moon is in the sky all day which tends to clear the sky, thus allowing the sun’s heat to again penetrate closer to the ground.

Declination

The moon changes hemispheres on a 27-day cycle, due to the tilt of the earth. In summer the new moon is always over the southern hemisphere, the full moon is over the northern hemisphere, and the quarter moons are over the latitude of the equator. In winter the full moon is over the southern hemisphere and new moon over the northern hemisphere.

Perigee

The perigee is the shortest moon-earth distance, and varies over a 27-day cycle. Perigee exaggerates whatever else is going on. When it is, e.g. full moon and perigee in summer, there is extra heat around. It may be noted that TC Ian began to form around 1^st-2^nd January, when it was new moon + a very powerful perigee (second closest moon-earth distance) for all of 2014.

There is no way to measure global temperature at any one moment, when at that moment half the world is experiencing freezing winter and the other the half burning heat of summer. Also, half the globe is enjoying daylight and the other half the cold night temperatures. There is no thermometer invented that can measure the temperature of the whole globe at once, nor the temperature of anywhere a day ahead and certainly not measure temperature of anything, let alone the whole world, over a whole decade or century ahead. Anyone who thinks they can is just guessing.

Ken Ring

www.predictweather.com

Ken Ring, of www.predictweather.com is the Australasian longrange forecaster who predicts coming weather patterns by planetary cycles and orbits of the moon and sun.  It is science, not astrology. Ken is longrange consultant and presenter for both Australia’s Channel Seven and Nine Networks and author of the Weather Almanacs for Australia. NZ publisher Random House NZ Email Tel: 0011649-817-7625  Mob: 021-970-696