The Press Democrat, the newspaper of record for Santa Rosa California, published an op-ed in the Sunday August 18th edition titled, “Golis: For climate change deniers, the heat is on.”
In addition to the reprehensible reference to climate change skeptics, the article is flat wrong on many counts. The writer, Peter Golis makes the classic mistake of conflating short-term weather timescales with long term climate time scales and then wrongly holding it up as proof of long term climate change.
Here are some of the claims made by Golis in the article:
July was the hottest month in the history of California.
We’re not surprised. July became the month when temperatures in the 80s became a break from the heat, and the morning fog typical of a summer day turned up missing.
“July’s heat was remarkable not only for its sheer intensity … but also for its duration,” wrote UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain on his Weather West blog.
“Temperatures,” he added, “remained extremely elevated for weeks on end and did not substantially cool off at night …”
The article goes on to mention several temperature records in California cities:
Ukiah broke a century-old mark when it recorded a high temperature of 117 degrees, and temperatures over 100 degrees were commonplace.
Palm Springs, no stranger to hot weather, recorded its hottest day ever, a scorching 124. Two hundred and forty-nine miles to the north, Redding recorded a high temperature of 119. Even Death Valley, one of the hottest places on Earth, set mind-melting new records. Temperatures exceeded 120 degrees on 24 separate days in July — including 129 degrees on July 7.
So, in the traditionally hot places of California, some new high temperature records were set. That’s not news in the context of climate change.
It is important to note that we only have about 150 years of accurate temperature records for California. We have no idea what the highest temperatures in California for the month of July were 200 years ago or more. It’s no surprise that in the short data we have compared to the long term geological existence of California, new records would occur.
In fact, the official temperature records for California begin in Sacramento in 1877, and according to the National Weather Service in Sacramento, while there have been a number of hot days in summer 2024, the data has not exceeded historical measurements overall, as seen in their analysis below:
All this handwaving by Golis is proof of nothing related to climate change.
Climate change acts on long time scales of 30 years or more whereas weather acts on short time scales from hours to days, sometimes lasting weeks. That’s what we have here. A high-pressure heat dome pattern, centered over California, caused temperatures to rise and because it was slow to move it caused sustained periods of high temperature. This is a weather pattern, nothing more.
Just a few days after Golis claimed climate change was responsible for the hottest month ever in California, the weather pattern has shifted, and now most of California is experiencing cooler than normal temperatures along with increased chances of rain as seen in the graphic below:
Compare the maps below from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from July to August. Note how California went from “above normal” to “below normal.”
Clearly, a weather pattern shift occurred between July and August. That’s not “climate change” that’s just normal weather.
Golis simply doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He makes this abundantly clear because the remainder of the article he wrote was mostly a political rant against the Republican Party and it’s energy policies. He suggests those policies are the root cause of the hot weather, plus literally everything but the kitchen sink:
Death and destruction caused by heat and fire, rising sea levels, melting glaciers, torrential rains, the frequency of horrendous storms — climate change, the scientists say, will be defined by extremes of weather more destructive than what came before.
Fortunately, Mother Nature changed the weather patterns to cooler than normal, and Golis ended up looking like a fool. It’s unfortunate that the editors and fact checkers of The Press Democrat didn’t bother to look at the cooler weather in progress on that Sunday when the Golis climate rant was published. Had they, the op-ed might have been more balanced and sensible.
