There's Snow in Them Thar Hills!

Above about 5,000 feet (1,700 meters) altitude in our local mountains, yesterday's rainstorm was a snow storm.  We drove up this morning, taking a little-used single-lane paved road from just south of Pine Valley up alongside Noble Canyon to the area just north of Laguna Peak.  Often this road is closed when there's snow on the ground, but today the gates were still open and we had a lovely drive.

Miki, our youngest field spaniel, came along with us.  He's seen snow before, but only a couple of times; it's still a novelty to him.  We stopped near the high point of the road and had a delightful romp in the snow with Miki (photos below).  Toward the end, I throw a few snowballs at him when he wasn't looking – it took him five snowballs to figure out that I was doing it!

   

CRU Does a U-Turn, is Releasing Climate Data...

For years now, the CRU has had a policy of keeping secret the key data needed to verify AGW.  Despite severe criticism even from within the scientific community (and even more from outside), they held onto this policy.  Of course this policy raised eyebrows and doubts about the rigor of their work.

In the wake of the ClimateGate leaks, the CRU has now reversed course, and says it will release all data (other than what they've lost – see earlier post) just as soon as they get releases from all involved. 

Their somewhat self-serving announcement is here.  As you're reading it, remember that this crowd is desperately trying to portray their innocence...

Given their past behavior, I'm a bit skeptical that the data will actually end up being public.  We'll see...

Mann to be Investigated...

Professor Michael Mann (of “hockey stick” temperature graph fame) is being investigated by his employer, Pennsylvania State University. 

We shouldn't read too much into this.  Launching an investigation is pretty much a reflexive action of bureaucracies; they're a time-honored way of deflecting blame from those in charge.  Once we see the results of the investigation, we'll know whether this was an exercise in obfuscation or a genuine inquiry...

ClimateGate: Data Dump...

In today's London Times:

SCIENTISTS at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have admitted throwing away much of the raw temperature data on which their predictions of global warming are based.

It means that other academics are not able to check basic calculations said to show a long-term rise in temperature over the past 150 years.

The UEA’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU) was forced to reveal the loss following requests for the data under Freedom of Information legislation.

The data were gathered from weather stations around the world and then adjusted to take account of variables in the way they were collected. The revised figures were kept, but the originals — stored on paper and magnetic tape — were dumped to save space when the CRU moved to a new building.

Mistakes happen, and this fact by itself doesn't really prove anything.  But it is mighty suspicious looking when combined with all the other attempts at hiding and obfuscation employed by the CRU gang.

The article goes on to say that the loss of this data means that other scientists can't check the CRU's work.  That's not quite true – the lost data can be regenerated by re-doing the studies.  This will be time-consuming and expensive, but it's practically free by comparison to the climate change mitigations being considered based on conclusions drawn from the data.  Re-doing the studies seems like a no-brainer...

Storm's Over...

But not before it dumped a total of 1.06 inches (about 26 mm) of rain on us!  This morning it's clear and sunny, and the chaparral is full of bright, saturated colors on the dust-free leaves in the bright sunlight.  El Cajon mountain was lit up with the early morning sun as we looked out our front windows at daybreak. 

Winter in Lawson Valley has arrived...