date: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 09:02:34 -0400
from: Thomas C Peterson <Thomas.C.Peterson@noaa.gov>
subject: Re: the next controversy
to: Phil Jones <p.jones@uea.ac.uk>

   Why do the Skeptics adopt such a nasty, derogatory tone?  I was just reading their UHI
   attack on Parker.  The relevant question for climate change is not whether downtown is
   warmer than the country but whether the observing sites have an increasing UHI bias.  Yet
   they dismiss sound science as kids twaddle rather than trying to understand why.
   I was just asked to review a J. Climate paper on Chinese UHI.  I declined (I reviewed a GRL
   pan evap article last week and have a J. Climate radiosonde homogeneity paper to review,
   hopefully, this week).  I'll paste the abstract they sent below just FYI as it relates to
   your UHI controversy.  I recommended Li as a reviewer as Li lead the effort to homogenize
   Chinese data and if one doesn't adequately address non-UHI homogeneity issues first, all
   sorts of things may be aliased onto the signal.
   Regards,
      Tom
   Phil Jones said the following on 6/19/2007 8:55 AM:

      Tom,
        Meant to say hope the interview goes well.
      Phil
     At 13:35 19/06/2007, you wrote:

     Thanks, Phil.
              -Tom
     Phil Jones said the following on 6/19/2007 3:58 AM:

      Tom,
         Just looked at the CA web site, and their latest is a real go at
      the Jones et al. (1990) paper. When Wei-Chyung got the email from
      Keenan he was going to Norway for a meeting. Maybe he's back now.
      It seems as though they didn't give him much time to respond.
        I have a JGR paper to review by a number of Chinese on temp trends
      there. Warming looks much greater than CA would believe. They refer to a
      J. Climate paper (which is either in press or resubmitted - depends where
      it is referred to in the paper !) which reckons that 30-40% of the warming
      there is urban related. Not keen on it being said this way, but need to
      read the paper beyond the abstract and the urban section.
        As for pointers, yes stress this is just USHCN and not global. Maybe
      also point out that work on assessing homogeneity is best done within
      the country (even if Russ doesn't agree), so could mention Lucie re
      Canada. There are apparently some Australian pictures as well on the
      CA website. I had an email from David Jones of BMRC, saying they will
      be ignoring anything on CA and anything from Warwick Hughes.
        The other aspect to point out is that the SSTs are warming around most coasts,
      and the open ocean as well, so UHIs can only be a small part of the overall
      warming. There is a sentence or two on this in Ch 3, in the ES if I recall
      correctly.
         Could also point out that there are many totally rural sites around the world
      which show strong warming.
      Cheers
      Phil
     At 01:17 19/06/2007, you wrote:

     Phil,
       The guy who is putting the photos of the USHCN on-line will be talking
     on a radio station in Seattle Tuesday morning.  I've been ask to follow
     him up for a 20 minute interview.  I expect everything I say that CA
     doesn't like will show up there fairly soon.  Any advice on points I
     ought to emphasize (their focus is, apparently, US temps, not global)?
              Tom

     Prof. Phil Jones
     Climatic Research Unit        Telephone +44 (0) 1603 592090
     School of Environmental Sciences    Fax +44 (0) 1603 507784
     University of East Anglia
     Norwich                          Email    [1]p.jones@uea.ac.uk
     NR4 7TJ
     UK ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

     --
     Thomas C. Peterson, Ph.D.
     NOAA's National Climatic Data Center
     151 Patton Avenue
     Asheville, NC 28801
     Voice: +1-828-271-4287
     Fax: +1-828-271-4328

     Prof. Phil Jones
     Climatic Research Unit        Telephone +44 (0) 1603 592090
     School of Environmental Sciences    Fax +44 (0) 1603 507784
     University of East Anglia
     Norwich                          Email    [2]p.jones@uea.ac.uk
     NR4 7TJ
     UK
     ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

--
Thomas C. Peterson, Ph.D.
NOAA's National Climatic Data Center
151 Patton Avenue
Asheville, NC 28801
Voice: +1-828-271-4287
Fax: +1-828-271-4328

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