Halloween Scare: Climate Cherry-Picking At NBC 4

NBC is not new to spreading false news about climate change, in fact, they write articles about it almost every day, although the Washington Post‘s Capital Weather Gang Hood probably holds the record.

Now, I am well aware that the meteorologists working at the NBC affiliate in Washington D.C. are on Al Gore’s “Global Warming Train,” as I have had a few debates with them before on Twitter, and it gets ugly (not on my behalf).

But I never thought that they would go to the point where they would cherry-pick a starting date for their temperature graphs.

On October 31, 2018, Halloween for Pete’s sake, I was watching NBC 4 to catch the weather only to see that Penn State graduate Amelia Draper was using her 2:30 talk time to talk about climate change, rather than doing the weather.

She even let us know on her Twitter page, saying that

“…Octobers are warming in much of the country. Of the 244 cities analyzed, 82% have warmed at least 1°F in the last half-century, while only 2% have cooled 1°F or more.”

She goes on saying that October 31 maximum temperatures in Washington D.C. have warmed 1.2°F since 1970, which is true, but her assessment is completely skewed so that she doesn’t look at the entire picture.

If you start your graph in 1880 (Figure 1), like most people would do, then we still see a warming trend, but please keep in mind that the 1880s through the 1910s were at the end of a global cold spell, not to mention that the weather station moved to Ronald Reagan International Airport in 1947, which is a warmer spot than the original location. (SEE ALSO: Meteorologist: NYTimes Uses Imaginary Temperature Data To Stoke Warming Fears)

The warmest October 31 in Washington D.C. was in 1950, with a high of 85 degrees. The coldest October 31 in Washington, was back in 1925, with a high of 41; in fact, we got 2.5 inches of snow on that date.

In 1946, it was 84 degrees, and it has been 80 on multiple dates, including 1919, 1961, and in 1974. In fact, it has been 44 years since we have had an 80 degree Halloween in Washington D.C.

And out of the top 10 (some are tied) warmest Halloweens, only two have occurred since 2000, with 2004 being 79 degrees and 2006 at 73. Ten of the warmest Halloweens (counting the tied ones) occurred prior to 1951.

See Figure 2.

Amelia used Climate Central‘s graph that begins in 1970, which was the second coldest decade of the twentieth century, so of course, if you start your graph there, you are going to get a warming trend. That is a no-brainer.

Another problem is her assessment is when she explained why it was 69 degrees on Halloween 2018.

The real reason was that of the atmospheric conditions and the upper air patterns in the atmosphere at the time. It had nothing to do with your SUV’s CO2 emissions.

The fact that it hasn’t been 80 degrees on Halloween in Washington in over 44 years tells me that Climate Central has a political agenda of some sort and people are too clueless to believe anything they say.

The global warming scare gets fed by money. If there is nothing scary (and spooky) going on, then funding gets cut.

You got to follow the money trail on these scientific political issues. NBC 4‘s slogan is “Working 4 You,” but what Storm Team 4 did the other day; they were certainly not working for you.

WORKS CITED

Washington D.C. (any city) temperatures can be found here.

1. Click the link above
2. Click “single station.”
3. Click “almanac data for a day.”
4. Choose your date.
5. Click “station selection.”
6. Change your “CWA” to change the area.
7. Choose your city within that “CWA.” (above CWA box).

The ClimateGuy is a student of meteorology and lead forecaster at FirstWatch Weather.