Bureau rejects temperature data manipulation claims — SkimNews
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- Bureau of Meteorology reported that Australia has warmed by more than 1.5C since 1910 and said the audit rested on “several misunderstandings”; it rejected accusations of human intervention as “false and unsubstantiated” and deliberate data manipulation as having “no basis in fact.”
- The Australian ran at least eight stories, follow-ups, cartoons and editorials in a week around an audit alleging “widespread errors” and “obvious patterns of human intervention”; the report gave no methodology beyond statistical software and coding, while Tony Abbott, News24 and 2GB amplified the claims.
- ACORN-SAT draws observations from 112 weather stations and quality-controls local effects such as relocations; data before 1910 is excluded, making the audit’s highlighted 1907 duplication irrelevant to its long-term temperature result.
- Duplicate records affected fewer than 200 of ACORN-SAT’s 7 million observations: 10 Observatory Hill months had repeated minimum temperatures, only three after 1910, plus one Charleville month, all from manually digitised pre-1946 records; the bureau called the resultant long-term impact statistically irrelevant.
- Palmerville logged 17 consecutive days at 31C in 2004; the audit called that “data failure,” while the bureau said whole-degree recording and lower tropical variability made repeated values more likely.
- ACORN-SAT uses publicly available station data, has undergone two independent reviews and has methods published in peer-reviewed journals; David Evans nevertheless invoked “secret climate business” in a follow-up and an editorial.
- Andrew Wilkie delivered the audit on Tom Berger’s behalf but said he was uncomfortable with The Australian’s “feverish” coverage and had “no reason to reconsider” his trust in the bureau or its data.
Why it matters: For Tony Abbott and other climate sceptics, the decisive test is scale: fewer than 200 of 7 million observations were affected, and the bureau calls the effect on the long-term record statistically irrelevant. The reported warming of more than 1.5C since 1910 remains intact despite Abbott’s call for an independent review.
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