October anomalies - GISS goes off piste

...but UAH is steady (thanks to Climate Skeptic). GISS is surface stations, UAH is satellite-based. The media will pick up on GISS (which is run by the second High Priest of the Church of Global Warming, James Hansen) and we will be overrun with stories about the hottest October on record, (despite the fact that they will be fighting for space with stories about records for cold being broken all over the globe...).

Let's see how long it takes for the first "hottest October" story to hit the Aussie press!

UPDATE: Comments on Anthony Watts' article indicate that certain temperatures in Russia that contribute to the GISS anomaly figure have been copied over from September! There's quality control for you! Firstly, here is the GISS temperature anomaly map, showing the extraordinary hotspot over central and north eastern Russia:

And here's the comment, from Patrick Kiser:

Quite simply, there is an input error.

In completing random check of the cities in warm area, every city with October 2008 data has identical data for both October and September:

Moskva 10.9 both months
Kraznojarsk 8.6 both months
Turuhansk 8.1 both months
Tarko-Sale 6.9 both months
Bor 8.1 both months

These were just the first five I’ve checked. I did also look at data in the US (St. Louis) and France (Dijon), and these appear to be actual temperatures.

Given that they are using September temperature readings for October, it is no surprise that they are getting such a large positive anomaly. I would be interested in finding out if there is an efficient way to notify NASA of these errors, so that they can correct their number.

I have personally just checked a few more of the GISS text files, and as well as those listed above, I found within a few minutes the following stations:

• Enisejsk
  
• Kolpasevo
  
• Suntar
  
• Viljujsk
  
• Minusinsk
  
• Tura
  
• Verhojansk
  
• Aldan
  
• Olenek
  
• Vitim
  
• Bomnak
  
• Njaksimvol
  
• Salehard
  
• Nar'jan-mar
  
• Hanty-Mansijs
  
• Tobol'sk, and
  
• Arhangel'sk

all with October temperature data identical to the September data. This will clearly have a significant impact on the anomalies, since in previous years temperatures from these stations have varied by many degrees between these months (e.g. a 9.3°C difference from September to October at Enisejsk in 2007). If you want to see the data first hand, go here, and look up any of the stations listed above.

In short, GISS has become a joke...

My last word on GISS (for the time being) here.