Last night On Wednesday night 18 January, the Climate Council released their latest doomsday publication, with the support of Beyond Blue (they’re now off my list of charities to donate to.)
Climate Councillor, climate scientist at the Australian National University and author of Humanity’s Moment: a Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope, Dr Joelle Gergis said: “The results of this poll are confronting. It’s heartbreaking to realise that many Australians are living with significant levels of distress related to the reality of our changing climate. It shines a light on this invisible mental health crisis that is undermining the stability of our local communities all over the country.
“We need to have a national conversation about climate change adaptation and listen to the experiences of people who have lived through these disasters.
“Extreme weather events are going to escalate as our planet continues to warm, so the impacts we have witnessed in recent years are really just the tip of the iceberg. We urgently need to develop plans that protect and support our local communities as climate change-fuelled disasters continue to upend the lives of countless Australians.”
Time for a reality check:
Is there evidence of increasing climate extremes? Rainfall and temperature are easily measured and data is freely available from the BOM.
First example: The recent flooding at Fitzroy Crossing.
A useful measure of extremes is Standard Deviation. For this technique I am indebted to Willis Eschenbach whose recent post at WattsUpWithThat sparked my interest.
I calculate the 10 year running standard deviation of daily rainfall, the 10 year mean, and because the standard deviation must change as the mean changes, I divide the 10 year standard deviation by the 10 year mean.
The nearest rain gauge with a reasonably long record is Fossil Downs. Here is the 10 year average daily rainfall:
As you can see average daily rainfall (which nearly all falls in the Wet) has nearly doubled since the decades to the 1960s.
10 year standard deviation:
No wonder people are anxious! The 10 year figure is very high (but not as high as the 1980s! Was it more extreme 40 to 50 years ago?)
But here is the standard deviation divided by average rainfall:
This shows that relative to the average, rainfall extremes are actually getting smaller.
Over the next few days I will show rainfall and temperature plots for several Australian cities. Stay tuned.
kenskingdom 
January 19, 2023 at 5:23 pm |
Joelle Gergis’s claim to fame is the retracted “hottest 60-year-span in 1,000 years” paper, produced with David Karoly. You’d think she’d learn ….
https://retractionwatch.com/2012/06/11/paper-claiming-hottest-60-year-span-in-1000-years-put-on-hold-after-being-published-online/
January 20, 2023 at 9:47 am |
What happens to this if there is a ten year drought with no rain at all? Would that be zero divided by whatsup Willis?
January 20, 2023 at 11:02 am |
Yes, in theory a 10 year drought throws it all to infinity, and the standard deviation would be zero as well, so zero divided by zero= ? In practice except for the south pole and perhaps the Atacama Desert there is generally some precipitation in a 10 year period.
January 20, 2023 at 11:57 am |
Yea OK to be fair then how about 10 years of every day having just under 0.2 MM. Right at the automatic rain gauge rounding point such that every second day shows 0.2 but every other shows zero.
This 0.0,0.2,0.0,0.2,0.0 etc etc. Or just a tad more or less rain each day so it always rounds up or down.