BBC’s Climate Check – March

By Paul Homewood

The BBC’s latest monthly climate check, the video that takes a few random weather events and pretends they are caused by global warming, or as the presenter Ben Rich says “your update on the changing climate”. (Click on link):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/51879358

He starts by claiming the NH winter was one of extremes, with some places warmer and others colder than average. However he presents no evidence that any of this is unusual, never mind unprecedented.

Unsurprisingly he then goes on to mention the wettest February on record in Britain. But forgets to tell viewers that in England it was only the 24th wettest of any month since 1862. Or that rainfall used to be much more extreme in the past:

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/uk-and-regional-series

Rich then goes on to ludicrously claim that some parts were so wet the Met Office had to introduce a new deeper shade or purple for NW England:

Just because the Met Office employs such a PR trick does not mean that these amounts of rainfall had not occurred before:

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadukp/data/ranked_monthly/HadNWEP_ranked_mly.txt

Winds were so strong, he states, that wind power set new records. Nothing to do then with the continuing expansion of capacity, enabled by massive subsidies!

Confusingly, Rich then proceeds to tell us that all of this weather, including the coldest winter in Alaska for 21 years, mild weather in Russia and a dry month in California, has been caused by the position of the jet stream, and not climate change after all!

As the chart of California winter rainfall illustrates, there is no such thing as “normal” where the jet stream is concerned, and wild variations from very wet to very dry happen most years:

https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cag/statewide/time-series/4/pcp/1/2/1895-2020?base_prd=true&begbaseyear=1901&endbaseyear=2000

But that does not stop him from finishing off by warning that a new report links extreme weather with climate change, and that time is running out to reduce emissions.

Sadly he has been totally unable to present any evidence whatsoever for this claim in any of his three monthly propaganda videos to date.