Climate cuttings 2

Anthony Watts and his volunteers continue to find startling bad practice in the siting of weather stations in the (allegedly) high quality USHCN network. The latest survey, of Waterville, Washington reveals a station with broken slats and peeling paint, and which is located on cinder chippings next to a car park.

This is obviously very embarrassing to the bureaucrats involved. They've retaliated by placing a major barrier in the way of the surveyors. Many weather stations are located at private homes, and surveyors had been telephoning ahead to ask for permission to visit. Our friends in the bureaucracy have now removed the contact details for the site operators from the public database. It's shameless, but was probably to have been expected.

Data integrity (or the appalling lack of it) seems to be a developing theme in the world of climate science. Cloud researcher Robert Maddox points out to problems with RRS (weather balloon) data. Our friends in the bureaucracy have moved the Tucson weather station (to a completely unsuitable location) and at the same time have replaced the instrumentation. This effectively prevents researchers from isolating the two effects. They also haven't been letting on that there are problems with all the new kit.

In the face of Freedom of Information requests, the IPCC has finally put the reviewers comments on the Fourth Assessment Report online. As part of the conditions for looking at the comments they demand that you agree not to reproduce them in part or in full!  It's flabbergasting to see the IPCC say that it would be "inappropriate" to show the missing Briffa data (you know, where the tree rings suggested falling temperatures in recent decades). The truth is apparently inappropriate for the IPCC.