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{{Merge from|Surfacestations|date=September 2010}}

{{Infobox person {{Infobox person
|name = Anthony Watts |name = Anthony Watts
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|footnotes = |footnotes =
}} }}
'''Anthony Watts''' is an American ] (], retired),<ref name="AMS"/> editor of the blog, '']?'' (WUWT),<ref name="WUWT"/> owner of the weather graphics company ItWorks, and founder of the ''SurfaceStations.org'' project that documents the siting of weather stations across the United States. '''Anthony Watts''' is an American broadcast meteorologist (], retired),<ref name="AMS"/><ref>], ''The Climate Files: The Battle for the Truth about Global Warming'', (2010) ], ISBN: 978-0-85265-229-9. Pearce calls him a "radio meteorologist."</ref> editor of the blog, '']?'' (WUWT),<ref name="WUWT"/> owner of the weather graphics company ItWorks, and founder of the ''SurfaceStations.org'' project that documents the siting of weather stations across the United States. He has a ] of CO<sub>2</sub>-driven ].


==Career== ==Career==
Watts became a television meteorologist in 1987 when he joined ] in Lafayette, Indiana, and ], a ] affiliate based in ].<ref name="Watts_2009_WUWT"/> After working at KHSL for 17 years, he left in 2004 to become the radio meteorologist for ], a ] affiliate also based in Chico, California. Watts also operates several companies that make weather graphics systems for use on television broadcasts.<ref name="aboutwatts"/> Watts became a television meteorologist in 1987 when he joined ] in Lafayette, Indiana, and ], a ] affiliate based in ].<ref name="Watts_2009_WUWT"/> After working at KHSL for 17 years, he left in 2004 to become the radio meteorologist for ], a ] affiliate also based in Chico, California. Watts also operates several companies that make weather graphics systems for use on television broadcasts.<ref name="aboutwatts"/> In 2006, Watts was briefly a candidate for ], to represent Chico on the ], but he withdrew his candidacy due to family and workload concerns.<ref name="Indar_2006-03-16_newsreview"/> In 2010, Watts went on a speaking tour arranged by the organization Climate Sceptics to 14 locations around Australia. In his talks, Watts presented his views that the temperature records used to support the scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming were inaccurate.<ref>Rasini, Marin, "Find out more on climate", '']'', June 12, 2010, p. 39.</ref>


==View of climate change==
In 2006, Watts was briefly a candidate for ], to represent Chico on the ], but he withdrew his candidacy due to family and workload concerns.<ref name="Indar_2006-03-16_newsreview"/>
Watts has a skeptical view of CO<sub>2</sub>-driven ]. He has said that in 1990 he had "been fully engaged in the belief that CO<sub>2</sub> was indeed the root cause of the global warming problem," but that he later changed his thinking after learning more about the science and "found it to be lacking."<ref name="watts-gore"/>


==Watts Up With That?==
In 2010, Watts went on a speaking tour arranged by the organization Climate Sceptics to 14 locations around Australia. In his talks, Watts presented his views that the temperature records used to support the scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming were inaccurate.<ref>Rasini, Marin, "Find out more on climate", '']'', June 12, 2010, p. 39.</ref>
{{Infobox website
| name = Watts Up With That?
| logo = ]
| screenshot =
| collapsible =
| collapsetext =
| caption =
| url = http://wattsupwiththat.com
| alexa = 16,869 (on 2010-09-08)
| commercial =
| type = ]
| language =
| registration =
| owner =
| author = Anthony Watts
| launch date = November 17, 2006
| current status =
| revenue =
| slogan = Commentary on puzzling things in life, nature, science, weather, climate change, technology, and recent news by Anthony Watts
| content license =
}}


Watts Up With That? (WUWT for short) is a ] created in 2006 by Anthony Watts which focuses on the ] from a ] perspective.<ref name="FE"/> The ] of the blog is "News and commentary on puzzling things in life, nature, science, weather, climate change, technology, and recent news". In addition to its founder, the blog has a regular list of contributors, including ].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Watts|first=Anthony|title=About – Watts Up With That?|url=http://wattsupwiththat.com/about2/|accessdate=27 July 2010}}</ref> The site receives more than two million hits per month.<ref name="Timesonline">{{Cite news| url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/article7043753.ece | date=February 28, 2010 | title= Richard Dawkins' pro-am clash in the boffins' blogosphere | author=Amy Turner |work = ] | accessdate=Sunday, Apr 04 2010 | location=London}}</ref> The blog is moderated, which means that user comments are screened before being posted for public view.
== View of climate change ==


In November 2009, the blog was one of the first websites to publish the ] emails and documents and thus played a key role, because of its high traffic numbers, in breaking the story to the global media. Observers and critics have noted, both positively and negatively, the blog's influence and role in the debate over global warming science on the Internet. The blog has been recognized for its content by '']'' and with a ]. In 2010 ] published on WUWT "a personal account of his influence on Lady Thatcher's views about climate change during the 1980s".<ref name="Monckton Guardian WUWT">{{Cite news
Watts has a skeptical view of CO<sub>2</sub>-driven ]. He has said that in 1990 he had "been fully engaged in the belief that CO<sub>2</sub> was indeed the root cause of the global warming problem," but that he later changed his thinking after learning more about the science and "found it to be lacking."<ref name="watts-gore"/> He established the blog, '']'', which mainly posts about the ]. In 2008, his blog won the internet voting-based "Best Science Blog" ].<ref name="watts-blogaward"/><ref>http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/11/dueling-sites-t/</ref>
| url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/22/thatcher-climate-sceptic-monckton
| date = 22 June 2010
| title = Thatcher becomes latest recruit in Monckton's climate sceptic campaign
| author = Bob Ward
| work = ]
| accessdate = 31 July April 2010
}}</ref> Monckton, as a guest writer, also posted rebuttals to critics of the position he takes towards the issue of anthropogenic global warming.<ref name="Monckton thanks WUWT">{{Cite web| url=http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/07/12/a-detailed-rebuttal-to-abraham-from-monckton/| title=A detailed rebuttal to Abraham from Monckton | publisher=Watts Up With That?| accessdate=31 July 2010}}</ref> Also in 2010, ] used exclusive photographs of the ] ] which had been posted on WUWT.<ref name="Fox News">{{Cite news|title=The DeepWater Explosion: How the Gulf Oil Spill Began|url=http://www.foxnews.com/slideshow/scitech/2010/05/03/deepwater-explosion-oil-spill-disaster/?slide=1#slide=1|newspaper=Fox News|date=May 4, 2010}}</ref>{{As of|September 2010}}, ] ranked the blog at 16,869 in global traffic and 5,870 in the United States.<ref>], ", retrieved 8 September 2010.</ref>


===Temperature records project===
== SurfaceStations.org ==

{{Main|Surfacestations}}
Watts' ] project is often discussed on WUWT. Occasional mention is made of his ] transect project, which is dedicated to measuring the actual urban heat island effect in major cities as well as his ] paint experiment which is testing whether a little noted changeover from whitewash to latex paints could have caused a heretofore unrecognized warming bias during the 20th century as whitewashed screens were replaced with latex painted ones.<ref>{{Cite book| first=A.W.| last=Montford| title=] | series=| isbn=978-1-906768-35-5|year=2010| location= London| publisher=]| page=363}}</ref>
In 2007 Watts launched the "SurfaceStations.org" project, whose mission is to create a publicly available database of photographs of weather stations, along with their metadata, in response to what he described as "a massive failure of bureaucracy to perform something so simple as taking some photographs and making some measurements and notes of a few to a few dozen weather stations in each state". Watts informed radio and television host ] that he began the undertaking, wondering if the composition of weather shelter paint had "made a difference" to thermometer readings and, consequently, the U.S. temperature record.<ref>Beck, Glenn. , glennbeck.com. ], March 3, 2008.</ref> The project relies on volunteers to gather the data.<ref name="aboutSS"/> Volunteers estimate the siting, usage and other conditions of weather stations in NOAA's Historical Climatology Network (USHCN) and grade them for their compliance with the standards published in the organization's ''Climate Reference Network Site Handbook''.<ref name="aboutSS"/><ref name="NOAAHandbook"/>

According to journalist ] in his book '']'', in 2007 WUWT and its readers found that a significant number of weather stations used to capture temperature records were located in the US, giving the US a disproportionate impact on global temperature reports. During the study, according to Booker, WUWT and ] found that selected temperature records published by the ] (GISS) based on data from United States Historical Climate Network appeared to be in error, causing GISS to mistakenly label 1998 as the hottest year on record for the United States. In August 2007, McIntyre alerted GISS to the problematic numbers, which GISS corrected immediately. As a result, the hottest year on record for the United States was changed to 1934, rather than the 1998 it had been earlier.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Gramling|first=Carolyn|title=Error in NASA climate data sparks debate|url=http://www.geotimes.org/aug07/article.html?id=WebExtra081607_2.html|work=]|publisher=]|accessdate=10 September 2010|date=August 16, 2007}}</ref> In response, GISS director ] stated that the temperature differences were slight and of little significance globally as the United States represents only a small fraction of the Earth`s surface.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Booker, Christopher|title=The Real Global Warming Disaster |publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd|year=2009|isbn=1441110526}} pp. 198–199; '']''. "Have you got Green fatigue?", Dublin: September 26, 2007. pg. 1; Easley, Paula, "Despite predictions, sky is not falling", '']''. Anchorage, Alaska: November 10, 2007. pg. B.4.</ref>

===Climatic Research Unit email controversy===
{{See also|Climatic Research Unit email controversy}}
In late 2009, an ] from the ] of the ] was ] to the public. '']'' reported that WUWT was one of three blogs "sent links to the cache of CRU leaked material, via anonymous servers, on the same day, Tuesday 17 November".<ref name="Guardian Leigh, Arthur, Evans">{{Cite news
| url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/04/climate-change-email-hacking-leaks%20Detectives%20question%20climate%20change%20scientist%20over%20email%20leaks
| date = 4 February 2010
| title = Detectives question climate change scientist over email leaks
| author = David Leigh, Charles Arthur and Rob Evans
| work = ]
| accessdate = 11 March 2010
}}</ref> The morning of 17 November 2009 (] time), an anonymous individual posted a link on WUWT to a Russian server containing the CRU emails and documents. Charles Rotter, a moderator for WUWT, noticed the link and notified Watts. Rotter made a CD copy of the files which he gave to Steve Mosher to analyze. Mosher called some of the individuals named in the emails and confirmed that the emails were genuine. Mosher began posting the contents of the emails on other blogs, including ]. Shortly thereafter, still on 17 November, Watts gave Rotter permission to post the emails and files on WUWT. Because of WUWT's higher traffic count, according to ] of the '']'', this was the catalyst which broke the story to the media.<ref>], "", '']'', 9 February 2010.</ref>

In an interview with the '']'', Watts reported that his blog had become "busier than ever" after the incident and that traffic to the site had tripled. According to the same article, the total number of ] on the site since its launch had topped 37 million.<ref name="FE">{{Cite journal| url=http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/more.php?news_id=94838 | title=Politicising and scare tactics cloud the issue|author=Fiona Harvey|work=The Financial Express|Volume=18|Number=89|accessdate=6 September 2010}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web| url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a6c0411c-2adf-11df-886b-00144feabdc0.html |title=E-mail leaks that clouded climate issue}}</ref> In his blog for the '']'', ] wrote that "Climategate", a term often used in the popular press to describe the controversy, was originally coined by a commenter in a post on WUWT.<ref>{{Cite news| url=http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100018246/climategate-how-the-greatest-scientific-scandal-of-our-generation-got-its-name/ | title=Climategate: how the 'greatest scientific scandal of our generation' got its name | work=The Daily Telegraph | location=London | date=November 29, 2009}}"The person who really coined it was a commenter called "Bulldust" on the Watts Up With That site."</ref>

===Awards, reception, and criticism===
In 2010, '']'' monthly science magazine ''Eureka'' named WUWT one of the top 30 science blogs, calling it "one of the more entertainingly sceptic blogs."<ref name="timesonline">{{Cite news| url=http://timesonline.typepad.com/science/2010/02/best-science-blogs.html | date=02/03/2010 | title=Eureka's Top 30 Science Blogs | author=Micheal Moran | work= ] | accessdate=Sunday, Apr 04 2010}}</ref> In 2008, the blog won the internet voting-based "Best Science Blog" ].<ref>http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/11/dueling-sites-t/</ref><ref name="weblogawards" />

Writing in '']'', ] described WUWT as having "metamorphosed from a gathering place for lonely nutters to a three-million-hits-per-month online newspaper on climate full of fascinating articles by physicists, geologists, economists and statisticians".<ref name="Ridley Spectator">{{Cite news
| url = http://www.spectator.co.uk/essays/all/5749853/part_3/the-global-warming-guerrillas.thtml
| date = 3 February 2010
| title = The global warming guerrillas
| author = Matt Ridley
| work = ]
| accessdate = 11 March 2010
}}</ref> ], who contributed to the IPCC's ] released in 1990, cited WUWT as being part of a new "parallel universe" of emerging online publications, manned by serious scientists critical of world governments approach to climate change. "A parallel universe is assembling itself parallel to the IPCC. This universe has become very technical – very proficient at taking apart the U.N.'s findings."<ref name="Gene J. Koprowski">{{Cite news|url=http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/04/28/climate-change-ipcc-noconsensus/?test=latestnews|title=EXCLUSIVE: Citizen’s Group Plans Extensive Audit of U.N. Climate Report|last=Koprowski|first=Gene J|date=April 28, 2010|publisher=Fox News|accessdate=3 May 2010}}</ref> Environmental activist ], in his blog at ''The Guardian'', has described WUWT as being "highly partisan and untrustworthy".<ref name="Monbiot WUWT">{{Cite news
| url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2009/may/15/climate-change-scepticism-arctic-ice
| date = 15 May 2009
| title = How to disprove Christopher Booker in 26 seconds
| author = George Monbiot
| work = ]
| accessdate = 11 April 2010
}}</ref> ], at ''The Guardian'''s Environment Blog, wrote that Watts "risks polluting his legitimate scepticism about the scientific processes and methodologies underpinning climate science with his accompanying politicised commentary."<ref name="Hickman WUWT">{{Cite news
| url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2010/feb/24/climate-change-debate Academic attempts to take the hot air out of climate science debate
| date = 24 February 2010
| title = Academic attempts to take the hot air out of climate science debate
| author = Leo Hickman
| work = ]
| accessdate = 3 April 2010
}}</ref>

==SurfaceStations.org==
In 2007 Watts launched the "SurfaceStations.org" project, whose mission is to create a publicly available database of photographs of weather stations,<ref name="A.T.J. de Laat">{{Cite journal|last=de Laat|first=A.T.J.|date=16 December 2008.|journal=American Geophysical Union.|publisher=American Geophysical Union.|volume=89|issue=51|page=4|doi=10.1029/2008EO510005}}</ref> along with their metadata, in response to what he described as "a massive failure of bureaucracy to perform something so simple as taking some photographs and making some measurements and notes of a few to a few dozen weather stations in each state". According to Watts, "his website was created in response to the realization that very little physical site survey data exists for the entire United States Historical Climatological Network (USHCN) and Global Historical Climatological Network (GHCN) surface station records worldwide".<ref name="About">{{Cite web|url=http://surfacestations.org/about.htm|title=About|last=Watts|first=Anthony|publisher=Surface Stations|page=1|accessdate=5 September 2010}}</ref> Watts told radio and television host ] that he began the undertaking, wondering if the composition of weather shelter paint had "made a difference" to thermometer readings and, consequently, the U.S. temperature record.<ref>Beck, Glenn. , glennbeck.com. ], March 3, 2008.</ref> The project relies on volunteers to gather the data.<ref name="aboutSS">{{Cite web
|url=http://www.surfacestations.org/about.htm
|title=About SurfaceStations.org
|accessdate=2009-03-06
|last=Watts | first=Anthony
|publisher=SurfaceStations.org
}}</ref>

Volunteers estimate the siting, usage and other conditions of weather stations in NOAA's Historical Climatology Network (USHCN) and grade them for their compliance with the standards published in the organization's ''Climate Reference Network Site Handbook''.<ref name="aboutSS"/><ref name="NOAAHandbook">{{Cite book
|url=http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/uscrn/documentation/program/X030FullDocumentD0.pdf
|title=Climate Reference Network (CRN) &mdash; Site Handbook
|publisher=]/]
|id=NOAA-CRN/OSD-2002-0002R0UD0
|series=CRN Series
|month=December | year=2002
|accessdate=2009-09-30
}}</ref> Jay Lawrimore, chief of the climate monitoring branch of the ] (NOAA) ] (NCDC) has said that he was aware of Watts' work and invites anyone with expertise to contribute to the scientific process.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.chicoer.com/ci_6756355|title=Scientists warm up to Watts' work|last=Olsen | first=Ryan|accessdate=2009-02-05|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20070927082547/http://www.chicoer.com/ci_6756355|archivedate=September 27, 2007|publisher=]|date=August 30, 2007|quote=I think any effort to better understand the observation system that's used to collect data and analyze it is helpful.
}}</ref> By 2009, the project had documented over 860 stations using over 650 volunteers. In a report entitled ''Is the U.S. Surface Temperature Record Reliable?'', published by the ], Watts concludes that "the errors in the record exceed by a wide margin the purported rise in temperature...during the twentieth century."<ref name="RecordReliable?">
{{Cite book|title=Is the U.S. Surface Temperature Record Reliable?|first=Anthony|last=Watts|authorlink = Anthony Watts (blogger)|url=http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/surfacestationsreport_spring09.pdf|publisher=]|year=2009|location=Chicago, IL|ISBN=1-934791-26-6 }}</ref> Watts claims that 90 percent of 1,200 weather stations are too close to objects such as parking lots, garbage incinerators, and airports and are affected by Urban Heat Island Effect.<ref name="Bret Baier">{{Cite news|url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,587542,00.html|title=Climate Scientists Agree to Take Another Shot at Global Warming Research|last=Baier|first=Bret|date=February 26, 2010|work=Fox|publisher=FOX News Network|page=1|accessdate=5 September 2010}}</ref>

On July 6, 2009 NOAA issued a preliminary report that charted data from 70 stations that ''SurfaceStations.org'' identified as 'good' or 'best' against the rest of the dataset surveyed at that time, and concluded, "there is no indication from this analysis that poor station exposure has imparted a bias in the U.S. temperature trends."<ref name="NOAAResponse">{{Cite web|url=http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/about/response-v2.pdf|title=Talking Points related to concerns about whether the U.S. temperature record is reliable|publisher=] Climate Services|date=July 6, 2009|accessdate=2009-07-02}}</ref> Watts issued a rebuttal in which he asserted that the preliminary analysis excluded new data on quality of surface stations, and criticized the use of homogenized data from the stations, which in his view accounts for the creation of two nearly identical graphs.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/06/24/ncdc-writes-ghost-talking-points-rebuttal-to-surfacestations-project/|title=NCDC writes ghost "talking points" rebuttal to surfacestations project|last=Watts | first=Anthony |date=2009-06-29|publisher=Watts Up With That?|accessdate=2009-07-09}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/07/30/on-climate-comedy-copyrights-and-cinematography/|title=On Climate, Comedy, Copyrights, and Cinematography|last=Watts | first=Anthony|publisher=Watts Up With That?|date=July 31, 2009|accessdate=2009-07-31}}</ref> The ''Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres'' subsequently accepted for publication a study, citing Watts' ''Surfacestations.org'', which concludes that "summary, we find no
evidence that the CONUS average temperature trends are inflated due to poor station siting." <ref>{{Cite journal|last=Menne |first=Matthew J.|coauthors=Claude N. Williams, Jr., and Michael A. Palecki |year=2010 |title=On the reliability of the U.S. surface temperature record |journal=J. Geophys. Res. |volume=115 |page=D11108 |doi=10.1029/2009JD013094. |url=http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/ushcn/v2/monthly/menne-etal2010.pdf |quote=In summary, we find no evidence that the CONUS average temperature trends are inflated due to poor station siting...The reason why station exposure does not play an obvious role in temperature trends probably warrants further investigation.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2010/jan/27/climate-sceptics-global-warming|title=Climate sceptics distract us from the scientific realities of global warming|last=Cook|first=John|date=27 January 2010 |publisher=]|accessdate=5 February 2010}}</ref>


==See also== ==See also==
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{{Reflist|2|refs= {{Reflist|2|refs=


<ref name="AMS">{{cite web <ref name="AMS">{{Cite web
|url=http://www.ametsoc.org/memdir/seallist/get_listoftv.cfm |url=http://www.ametsoc.org/memdir/seallist/get_listoftv.cfm
|title=List of AMS Television Seal Holders |title=List of AMS Television Seal Holders
Line 52: Line 144:
}}</ref> }}</ref>


<ref name="aboutSS">{{cite web <ref name="aboutSS">{{Cite web
|url=http://www.surfacestations.org/about.htm |url=http://www.surfacestations.org/about.htm
|title=About SurfaceStations.org |title=About SurfaceStations.org
Line 60: Line 152:
}}</ref> }}</ref>


<ref name="aboutwatts">{{cite web <ref name="aboutwatts">{{Cite web
|url=http://wattsupwiththat.com/about/ |url=http://wattsupwiththat.com/about/
|title=About Watts Up With That? |title=About Watts Up With That?
Line 69: Line 161:


<ref name="Indar_2006-03-16_newsreview"> <ref name="Indar_2006-03-16_newsreview">
{{cite news {{Cite news
|url=http://www.newsreview.com/chico/content?oid=48224 |url=http://www.newsreview.com/chico/content?oid=48224
|last=Indar | first=Josh |last=Indar | first=Josh
Line 78: Line 170:
}}</ref> }}</ref>


<ref name="NOAAHandbook">{{cite book <ref name="NOAAHandbook">{{Cite book
|url=http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/uscrn/documentation/program/X030FullDocumentD0.pdf |url=http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/uscrn/documentation/program/X030FullDocumentD0.pdf
|title=Climate Reference Network (CRN) &mdash; Site Handbook |title=Climate Reference Network (CRN) &mdash; Site Handbook
Line 88: Line 180:
}}</ref> }}</ref>


<ref name="Watts_2009_WUWT">{{cite web <ref name="Watts_2009_WUWT">{{Cite web
|url=http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/surfacestationsreport_spring09.pdf |url=http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/surfacestationsreport_spring09.pdf
|title=Is the U.S. Surface Temperature Record Reliable? |title=Is the U.S. Surface Temperature Record Reliable?
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}}</ref> }}</ref>


<ref name="watts-blogaward">{{cite web <ref name="weblogawards">{{Cite web
|url=http://2008.weblogawards.org/polls/best-science-blog/ |url=http://2008.weblogawards.org/polls/best-science-blog/
|title=2008 Weblog Awards |title=2008 Weblog Awards
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}}</ref> }}</ref>


<ref name="watts-gore">{{cite web <ref name="watts-gore">{{Cite web
|url=http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/03/27/gore-to-throw-insults-on-60-minutes-time-to-unload-on-cbs/ |url=http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/03/27/gore-to-throw-insults-on-60-minutes-time-to-unload-on-cbs/
|date=March 27, 2008 |date=March 27, 2008
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==External links== ==External links==
* *
* {{Cite book | title=Is the U.S. Surface Temperature Record Reliable? | first=Anthony | last=Watts | year=2009 | url=http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/surfacestationsreport_spring09.pdf | publisher=] | location=Chicago, IL | isbn=1-934791-26-6 }} * {{Cite book| title=Is the U.S. Surface Temperature Record Reliable? | first=Anthony | last=Watts | year=2009 | url=http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/surfacestationsreport_spring09.pdf | publisher=] | location=Chicago, IL | isbn=1-934791-26-6 }}
*, by Joseph D’Aleo and A. Watts, ], January 27, 2010. *, by Joseph D’Aleo and A. Watts, ], January 27, 2010.
*


{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see ]. -->
| NAME =Watts, Anthony
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
| SHORT DESCRIPTION =
| DATE OF BIRTH =
| PLACE OF BIRTH =
| DATE OF DEATH =
| PLACE OF DEATH =
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watts, Anthony}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Watts, Anthony}}
] ]

Revision as of 12:11, 14 September 2010

Anthony Watts
NationalityAmerican
WebsiteWatts Up With That?
SurfaceStations.org

Anthony Watts is an American broadcast meteorologist (AMS seal holder, retired), editor of the blog, Watts Up With That? (WUWT), owner of the weather graphics company ItWorks, and founder of the SurfaceStations.org project that documents the siting of weather stations across the United States. He has a skeptical view of CO2-driven global warming.

Career

Watts became a television meteorologist in 1987 when he joined WLFI-TV in Lafayette, Indiana, and KHSL-TV, a CBS affiliate based in Chico, California. After working at KHSL for 17 years, he left in 2004 to become the radio meteorologist for KPAY-AM, a Fox News affiliate also based in Chico, California. Watts also operates several companies that make weather graphics systems for use on television broadcasts. In 2006, Watts was briefly a candidate for county supervisor, to represent Chico on the Butte County Board of Supervisors, but he withdrew his candidacy due to family and workload concerns. In 2010, Watts went on a speaking tour arranged by the organization Climate Sceptics to 14 locations around Australia. In his talks, Watts presented his views that the temperature records used to support the scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming were inaccurate.

View of climate change

Watts has a skeptical view of CO2-driven global warming. He has said that in 1990 he had "been fully engaged in the belief that CO2 was indeed the root cause of the global warming problem," but that he later changed his thinking after learning more about the science and "found it to be lacking."

Watts Up With That?

Watts Up With That?
Type of siteBlog
Created byAnthony Watts
URLhttp://wattsupwiththat.com

Watts Up With That? (WUWT for short) is a blog created in 2006 by Anthony Watts which focuses on the global warming controversy from a global warming skeptic perspective. The tagline of the blog is "News and commentary on puzzling things in life, nature, science, weather, climate change, technology, and recent news". In addition to its founder, the blog has a regular list of contributors, including Indur Goklany. The site receives more than two million hits per month. The blog is moderated, which means that user comments are screened before being posted for public view.

In November 2009, the blog was one of the first websites to publish the Climategate emails and documents and thus played a key role, because of its high traffic numbers, in breaking the story to the global media. Observers and critics have noted, both positively and negatively, the blog's influence and role in the debate over global warming science on the Internet. The blog has been recognized for its content by The Times and with a Wizbang Weblog Award. In 2010 Christopher Monckton published on WUWT "a personal account of his influence on Lady Thatcher's views about climate change during the 1980s". Monckton, as a guest writer, also posted rebuttals to critics of the position he takes towards the issue of anthropogenic global warming. Also in 2010, Fox News used exclusive photographs of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster which had been posted on WUWT.As of September 2010, Alexa Internet ranked the blog at 16,869 in global traffic and 5,870 in the United States.

Temperature records project

Watts' Surface Stations project is often discussed on WUWT. Occasional mention is made of his urban heat island transect project, which is dedicated to measuring the actual urban heat island effect in major cities as well as his Stevenson screen paint experiment which is testing whether a little noted changeover from whitewash to latex paints could have caused a heretofore unrecognized warming bias during the 20th century as whitewashed screens were replaced with latex painted ones.

According to journalist Christopher Booker in his book The Real Global Warming Disaster, in 2007 WUWT and its readers found that a significant number of weather stations used to capture temperature records were located in the US, giving the US a disproportionate impact on global temperature reports. During the study, according to Booker, WUWT and Stephen McIntyre found that selected temperature records published by the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) based on data from United States Historical Climate Network appeared to be in error, causing GISS to mistakenly label 1998 as the hottest year on record for the United States. In August 2007, McIntyre alerted GISS to the problematic numbers, which GISS corrected immediately. As a result, the hottest year on record for the United States was changed to 1934, rather than the 1998 it had been earlier. In response, GISS director James Hansen stated that the temperature differences were slight and of little significance globally as the United States represents only a small fraction of the Earth`s surface.

Climatic Research Unit email controversy

See also: Climatic Research Unit email controversy

In late 2009, an archive containing emails and other documents from the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia was leaked to the public. The Guardian reported that WUWT was one of three blogs "sent links to the cache of CRU leaked material, via anonymous servers, on the same day, Tuesday 17 November". The morning of 17 November 2009 (California time), an anonymous individual posted a link on WUWT to a Russian server containing the CRU emails and documents. Charles Rotter, a moderator for WUWT, noticed the link and notified Watts. Rotter made a CD copy of the files which he gave to Steve Mosher to analyze. Mosher called some of the individuals named in the emails and confirmed that the emails were genuine. Mosher began posting the contents of the emails on other blogs, including Climate Audit. Shortly thereafter, still on 17 November, Watts gave Rotter permission to post the emails and files on WUWT. Because of WUWT's higher traffic count, according to Fred Pearce of the Guardian, this was the catalyst which broke the story to the media.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Watts reported that his blog had become "busier than ever" after the incident and that traffic to the site had tripled. According to the same article, the total number of hits on the site since its launch had topped 37 million. In his blog for the Daily Telegraph, James Delingpole wrote that "Climategate", a term often used in the popular press to describe the controversy, was originally coined by a commenter in a post on WUWT.

Awards, reception, and criticism

In 2010, The Times monthly science magazine Eureka named WUWT one of the top 30 science blogs, calling it "one of the more entertainingly sceptic blogs." In 2008, the blog won the internet voting-based "Best Science Blog" Wizbang Weblog Award.

Writing in The Spectator, Matt Ridley described WUWT as having "metamorphosed from a gathering place for lonely nutters to a three-million-hits-per-month online newspaper on climate full of fascinating articles by physicists, geologists, economists and statisticians". Patrick J. Michaels, who contributed to the IPCC's First Assessment Report released in 1990, cited WUWT as being part of a new "parallel universe" of emerging online publications, manned by serious scientists critical of world governments approach to climate change. "A parallel universe is assembling itself parallel to the IPCC. This universe has become very technical – very proficient at taking apart the U.N.'s findings." Environmental activist George Monbiot, in his blog at The Guardian, has described WUWT as being "highly partisan and untrustworthy". Leo Hickman, at The Guardian's Environment Blog, wrote that Watts "risks polluting his legitimate scepticism about the scientific processes and methodologies underpinning climate science with his accompanying politicised commentary."

SurfaceStations.org

In 2007 Watts launched the "SurfaceStations.org" project, whose mission is to create a publicly available database of photographs of weather stations, along with their metadata, in response to what he described as "a massive failure of bureaucracy to perform something so simple as taking some photographs and making some measurements and notes of a few to a few dozen weather stations in each state". According to Watts, "his website was created in response to the realization that very little physical site survey data exists for the entire United States Historical Climatological Network (USHCN) and Global Historical Climatological Network (GHCN) surface station records worldwide". Watts told radio and television host Glen Beck that he began the undertaking, wondering if the composition of weather shelter paint had "made a difference" to thermometer readings and, consequently, the U.S. temperature record. The project relies on volunteers to gather the data.

Volunteers estimate the siting, usage and other conditions of weather stations in NOAA's Historical Climatology Network (USHCN) and grade them for their compliance with the standards published in the organization's Climate Reference Network Site Handbook. Jay Lawrimore, chief of the climate monitoring branch of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) has said that he was aware of Watts' work and invites anyone with expertise to contribute to the scientific process. By 2009, the project had documented over 860 stations using over 650 volunteers. In a report entitled Is the U.S. Surface Temperature Record Reliable?, published by the Heartland Institute, Watts concludes that "the errors in the record exceed by a wide margin the purported rise in temperature...during the twentieth century." Watts claims that 90 percent of 1,200 weather stations are too close to objects such as parking lots, garbage incinerators, and airports and are affected by Urban Heat Island Effect.

On July 6, 2009 NOAA issued a preliminary report that charted data from 70 stations that SurfaceStations.org identified as 'good' or 'best' against the rest of the dataset surveyed at that time, and concluded, "there is no indication from this analysis that poor station exposure has imparted a bias in the U.S. temperature trends." Watts issued a rebuttal in which he asserted that the preliminary analysis excluded new data on quality of surface stations, and criticized the use of homogenized data from the stations, which in his view accounts for the creation of two nearly identical graphs. The Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres subsequently accepted for publication a study, citing Watts' Surfacestations.org, which concludes that "summary, we find no evidence that the CONUS average temperature trends are inflated due to poor station siting."

See also

References

  1. "List of AMS Television Seal Holders". American Meteorological Society. Retrieved 2010-05-13.
  2. Pearce, Fred, The Climate Files: The Battle for the Truth about Global Warming, (2010) Guardian Books, ISBN: 978-0-85265-229-9. Pearce calls him a "radio meteorologist."
  3. Watts Up With That? blog
  4. Watts, Anthony (2009). "Is the U.S. Surface Temperature Record Reliable?" (PDF). Heartland Institute. Retrieved 2009-11-24.
  5. Watts, Anthony. "About Watts Up With That?". Watts Up With That?. Retrieved 2009-02-09.
  6. Indar, Josh (2006-03-16). "One out, one in, one on". Sacramento News & Review. Retrieved 2009-10-13.
  7. Rasini, Marin, "Find out more on climate", Townsville Bulletin, June 12, 2010, p. 39.
  8. Watts, Anthony (March 27, 2008). "Gore to throw insults on 60 minutes". Watts Up With That?. Retrieved 2009-02-06.
  9. ^ Fiona Harvey. "Politicising and scare tactics cloud the issue". The Financial Express. Retrieved 6 September 2010. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |Number= ignored (|number= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Volume= ignored (|volume= suggested) (help)
  10. Watts, Anthony. "About – Watts Up With That?". Retrieved 27 July 2010.
  11. Amy Turner (February 28, 2010). "Richard Dawkins' pro-am clash in the boffins' blogosphere". The Times. London. Retrieved Sunday, Apr 04 2010. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  12. Bob Ward (22 June 2010). "Thatcher becomes latest recruit in Monckton's climate sceptic campaign". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 July April 2010. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  13. "A detailed rebuttal to Abraham from Monckton". Watts Up With That?. Retrieved 31 July 2010.
  14. "The DeepWater Explosion: How the Gulf Oil Spill Began". Fox News. May 4, 2010.
  15. Alexa Internet, "wattsupwiththat.com, retrieved 8 September 2010.
  16. Montford, A.W. (2010). The Hockey Stick Illusion. London: Stacey International. p. 363. ISBN 978-1-906768-35-5.
  17. Gramling, Carolyn (August 16, 2007). "Error in NASA climate data sparks debate". Geotimes. American Geological Institute. Retrieved 10 September 2010.
  18. Booker, Christopher (2009). The Real Global Warming Disaster. Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd. ISBN 1441110526. pp. 198–199; Irish Independent. "Have you got Green fatigue?", Dublin: September 26, 2007. pg. 1; Easley, Paula, "Despite predictions, sky is not falling", Anchorage Daily News. Anchorage, Alaska: November 10, 2007. pg. B.4.
  19. David Leigh, Charles Arthur and Rob Evans (4 February 2010). "Detectives question climate change scientist over email leaks". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 March 2010.
  20. Fred Pearce, "Search for hacker may lead police back to East Anglia's climate research unit", The Guardian, 9 February 2010.
  21. "E-mail leaks that clouded climate issue".
  22. "Climategate: how the 'greatest scientific scandal of our generation' got its name". The Daily Telegraph. London. November 29, 2009."The person who really coined it was a commenter called "Bulldust" on the Watts Up With That site."
  23. Micheal Moran (02/03/2010). "Eureka's Top 30 Science Blogs". The Times. Retrieved Sunday, Apr 04 2010. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  24. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/11/dueling-sites-t/
  25. "2008 Weblog Awards". Weblogawards.org. 2008.
  26. Matt Ridley (3 February 2010). "The global warming guerrillas". The Spectator. Retrieved 11 March 2010.
  27. Koprowski, Gene J (April 28, 2010). "EXCLUSIVE: Citizen's Group Plans Extensive Audit of U.N. Climate Report". Fox News. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
  28. George Monbiot (15 May 2009). "How to disprove Christopher Booker in 26 seconds". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 April 2010.
  29. Leo Hickman (24 February 2010). Academic attempts to take the hot air out of climate science debate "Academic attempts to take the hot air out of climate science debate". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 April 2010. {{cite news}}: Check |url= value (help)
  30. de Laat, A.T.J. (16 December 2008.). American Geophysical Union. 89 (51). American Geophysical Union.: 4. doi:10.1029/2008EO510005. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
  31. Watts, Anthony. "About". Surface Stations. p. 1. Retrieved 5 September 2010.
  32. Beck, Glenn. Inconvenient Thermometers, glennbeck.com. Premiere Radio Networks, March 3, 2008.
  33. ^ Watts, Anthony. "About SurfaceStations.org". SurfaceStations.org. Retrieved 2009-03-06.
  34. Climate Reference Network (CRN) — Site Handbook (PDF). CRN Series. NOAA/NESDIS. 2002. NOAA-CRN/OSD-2002-0002R0UD0. Retrieved 2009-09-30. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  35. Olsen, Ryan (August 30, 2007). "Scientists warm up to Watts' work". Chico Enterprise Record. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved 2009-02-05. I think any effort to better understand the observation system that's used to collect data and analyze it is helpful.
  36. Watts, Anthony (2009). Is the U.S. Surface Temperature Record Reliable? (PDF). Chicago, IL: The Heartland Institute. ISBN 1-934791-26-6. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
  37. Baier, Bret (February 26, 2010). "Climate Scientists Agree to Take Another Shot at Global Warming Research". Fox. FOX News Network. p. 1. Retrieved 5 September 2010.
  38. "Talking Points related to concerns about whether the U.S. temperature record is reliable" (PDF). NOAA Climate Services. July 6, 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-02.
  39. Watts, Anthony (2009-06-29). "NCDC writes ghost "talking points" rebuttal to surfacestations project". Watts Up With That?. Retrieved 2009-07-09.
  40. Watts, Anthony (July 31, 2009). "On Climate, Comedy, Copyrights, and Cinematography". Watts Up With That?. Retrieved 2009-07-31.
  41. Menne, Matthew J. (2010). "On the reliability of the U.S. surface temperature record" (PDF). J. Geophys. Res. 115: D11108. doi:10.1029/2009JD013094. In summary, we find no evidence that the CONUS average temperature trends are inflated due to poor station siting...The reason why station exposure does not play an obvious role in temperature trends probably warrants further investigation. {{cite journal}}: Check |doi= value (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  42. Cook, John (27 January 2010). "Climate sceptics distract us from the scientific realities of global warming". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 February 2010.

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