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Debate continues about New Zealand climate records
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The debate about New Zealand's climate records centers on
corrections made to the nation's climate records and whether
or not they skew the results to show global warming. (NIWA / New
Zealand Climate Science Coalition)
A debate about New Zealand’s climate records has become front and center in the wider debate about manmade climate change. Some have said that the records were improperly altered to show the effects of global warming while the agency in charge of the monitoring stations says the records are correct.
Two days ago, the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition released a report showing that due to modifications of climate records, warming in New Zealand was higher than the global average. They said that were it not for the ‘corrections’ of the records, the trend would have been virtually flat.
New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), the agency in charge of the monitoring stations and climate records, said that the corrections were necessary to compensate for station relocations over the last 150 years. The agency said they used, “internationally accepted techniques, including making adjustments for changes such as movement of measurement sites.”
NIWA used the station in Wellington which moved from Thorndon to Kelburn in 1928. The new station’s location is approximately six miles from the previous one and at an altitude 122 m (400 feet) higher. As a result, corrections were made in an attempt to keep the records consistent.
The debate however does not appear to be over as others continue to weigh in on the issue. Anthony Watts, editor of climate change site “Watts Up With That” said the very location of the station is the problem. The ‘urban heat island effect’ is often pointed to as a cause of warmer readings, particularly those around airports like the Wellington station is.
The New Zealand Science Coalition similarly pointed to the station issue and called on NIWA to be more open with its data. Coalition secretary, Terry Dunleavy said, "Nothing released by NIWA so far allows their methodology to be replicated easily."
The Climate Change Examiner exchanged emails with Dr. David Wratt, Chief Climate Scientist for NIWA, about the station in Wellington. Wratt said, “Wellington airport is well exposed (actually a very windy site as anyone who has travelled through there will be able to tell you), right next to the sea.”
The station has actually been in two locations at the airport. “Initially on a grassed site about 100m to the North of the crash fire building, and then from 1994 well to the west of the runway (on the other side of the airport),” Wratt explained.
Urban growth in the area would not affect temperature readings according to Wratt. “Population changes should not be an issue - fish to the North and South; not much change in housing density elsewhere,” he said.
Station moves are one of the most contentious issues in debates about the climate record across the globe. In the United States , Denver, Colorado has had an ongoing debate over the National Weather Service’s move of the official weather station 14 miles from its previous location in 1995. For more on the debate in Denver, read: Do Denver’s climate records come with an asterisk by the Denver Weather Examiner.
Related:
- Essex County Conservative Examiner - NIWA press release less than satisfactory
- TBR.cc - NIWA's explanation raises major new questions
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