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Re:Alaskan North Slope climate change just outran one of our... by danielvf on Sunday December 10, 2017 @06:43PM (#15894155)
Slightly misleading headline.

The November 2017 temperature readings from Utqiaġvik (Barrow), Alaska were 2.5 degrees higher than November 1998. The NCEI's ingest code for their monthly report flagged this station as a probable sensor setup change and ignored the data.

Crucially the code for choosing which data to ignore looks for "agreement" with nearby sensors. Utqiaġvik (Barrow) is one of the most remote sites, with the nearest other site being many smaller European countries away. The other "nearest" sites did not show similar warming, therefore the NCEI's code discarded Barrow. If there had been other, closer stations, showing similar data, their code would not have discarded it.

A classic case of a programmer making an assumption that is almost, but not quite, universaly true. "There will always be many nearby stations who's average temperature will behave roughly similarly," works for most of the US, but not here.

They are now updating their data ingest code to relax the agreement requirements for isolated, far north stations.

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[Update: ye gads, how is this downvote fodder? My points are going up and down like a yo-yo! If I'm wrong about anything, here, let me know!]

Re:Alaskan North Slope climate change just outran one of our... by ricardobeat on Sunday December 10, 2017 @06:54PM (#15894215)
Where is that temperature data from? The linked NOAA website only has data up to October 2017: https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/dv/iadv/graph.php?code=BRW&pro...

It also sounds like you are downplaying the effects of climate change, in contradiction with the data displayed in the article, which is bound to get downvotes.

Re:Alaskan North Slope climate change just outran one of our... by danielvf on Sunday December 10, 2017 @07:01PM (#15894244)
Thanks. I'm getting the temperature number from the graphs in the article.

Here's one, showing Barrow temperature vs sea ice: https://www.climate.gov/sites/default/files/barrow-temp-vs-n...

Re:Alaskan North Slope climate change just outran one of our... by acqq on Sunday December 10, 2017 @09:22PM (#15894735)
But the graph shows at least 25 degrees differece, whereas you claim only 2.5 degrees in your parent post!
Re:Alaskan North Slope climate change just outran one of our... by danielvf on Monday December 11, 2017 @07:52AM (#15896711)
1998 was the previous high average in the last 20 years. Look in the bottom right side of the graph I linked to.
Re:Alaskan North Slope climate change just outran one of our... by acqq on Monday December 11, 2017 @07:59AM (#15896748)
I see, I've been looking at 1988, isn't it more interesting, looking for the biggest difference, not for the smallest one? Why do you believe is the small difference supposed to trigger anything? Can you quote something relevant?
Re:Alaskan North Slope climate change just outran one of our... by danielvf on Monday December 11, 2017 @08:54AM (#15897005)
I compared this high monthly average to the previous high average, a small difference as you said, because the headline sounded like extreme heat at Barrow overwhelmed measuring hardware, in contrast to the actual article that tells us that the breakage was in the data import code for a report - stemming from a programmer's two incorrect assumptions about the world.

(These two being that nearby stations' temperatures would rise and fall together, and that all stations would have nearby stations.)

From the article, the only change they are making to fix this breakage is to reduce the strength of these two assumptions for far north stations.

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The popular perception is that the currently measured global warming means that every part of the globe is getting warmer at the same rate, all year long. The reality is that Barrow is getting a tiny bit warmer in the summer, a lot warmer than it used to be in the winter, and the rest of Alaska that we are measuring isn't seeing the same scale of changes.

That's totally cool - it's just not the popular perception on either side of the debate. Here's a relevant XKCD for real life science https://xkcd.com/683/

Re:Alaskan North Slope climate change just outran one of our... by acqq on Monday December 11, 2017 @08:57AM (#15897018)
OK, so do we agree that looking for the "smallest difference" on the graph like you did has actually no practical use in analyzing the data?

Can you also please cite your source that it's a "data import code" problem as you claim above? I don't see it in the article and I understand the article differently, I consider the assumptions they used being correct ones for the given data sources.

Edit: I see your edit and I don't agree with your claim "it's just not the popular perception on either side of the debate" -- "it should warm the same everywhere" is only actively used by the "deniers" even if no scientist ever made such a claim:

https://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-qa/does-global...

https://www.treehugger.com/natural-sciences/uks-met-office-r...

etc.

Re:Alaskan North Slope climate change just outran one of our... by 3princip on Sunday December 10, 2017 @07:23PM (#15894326)
There is sub-hourly (5 min) data for a station near Barrow here, since 2006:

https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/crn/qcdatasets.html

Re:Alaskan North Slope climate change just outran one of our... by riffic on Sunday December 10, 2017 @07:23PM (#15894325)
HN moderation is notoriously fickle and is a core weakness of this site. I wouldn't let the downvotes get you down.
Re:Alaskan North Slope climate change just outran one of our... by danielvf on Sunday December 10, 2017 @07:40PM (#15894392)
Yeah, not bothered at all, just wondering if I missed something.
Re:Alaskan North Slope climate change just outran one of our... by sulam on Sunday December 10, 2017 @07:50PM (#15894433)
I’ve found climate stuff attracts the emotional vote.
Re:Alaskan North Slope climate change just outran one of our... by inopinatus on Sunday December 10, 2017 @07:33PM (#15894372)
Ah, don’t sweat the popularity contest. No-one will lie on their deathbed wishing they had more upvotes.