The Heathrow Temperature Data That The Met Office Tried To Withhold

By Paul Homewood

http://blog.metoffice.gov.uk/2015/07/07/on-the-record-observing-a-heatwave/

Readers will recall that when I asked for the temperature data at Heathrow for 1st July, I was told it would cost me £75 (+ VAT!!). The next day, however, they published this graph, showing a considerable spike.

Thanks to Willis Eschenbach’s excellent analysis at WUWT, I noticed that the data I had requested had actually been provided FOC to Carbon Brief, a political blog set up to promote the decarbonisation agenda. Carbon Brief, with the help of advice from the Met Office’s Mark McCarthy, then used the data to attempt to prove the assertion that it “woz the sun wot done it, onest guv”.

So, let’s take a look at the data, which the Met Office were so reluctant to hand over to me.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WqpCC7AHjfHa686evyNuKRvvhcIRE1bpwW0ElBZYP8A/edit?pli=1#gid=0

We find that the temperature at Heathrow jumped from 35.8C to 36.7C in the space of two minutes. According to Clive Best’s analysis, a Boeing 747 landed on the runway just to the south of the temperature sensor at 14.13, just as the temperature peaked. [UPDATE – We believe that the airline times are BST, and not GMT, as the Met Office have used. Clive is rechecking this]

Also note that there was a subtle wind shift from from the SE to S, from 14.06 to 14.12, just as temperatures picked up.

Meanwhile, the Met Office have two serious questions to answer:

1) Why were they so reluctant to provide this data to me in the first place?

2) Why are they so keen to help the Carbon Brief with their propaganda?

Is it really possible for a bit of sunshine to increase temperatures by 0.9C in two minutes? Or 1.6C in five?