No, Sicily and Spain didn’t have a 50 C day...

BBC projected maxima vs actual 

Last week there were reports all over the media -- on the BBC, on CNBC, on ABC, on CNN -- that there were record maxima around the world, Sicily and Spain special mentions. We were told we were experiencing "The highest recorded temperatures in history". Some said the highest in over 120,000 years. 

At the time I though “huh?”. I mean, temperatures multiple degrees higher than the highest previous recorded? Seemed a bit weird. We know that temps are increasing, but by fractions of a degree per decade. We know that maxima and minima are increasing, with minima increasing a bit more than maxima. But, again not by multiple degrees, in a single year!

So it was weird to be told that temperatures in Sicily and Spain were going to hit up to 50 C. World highest temperatures! 

The first hint that that was not true was when people actually IN Sicily and Spain said “hang on a minute; I’m here right now and it’s 32 C not 50 C!”

Turns out that what was reported was the GROUND temperature from the satellites of the European Space Agency (ESA). They were measuring the ground temperature, when what we measure when we’re told the temperature is from a thermometer in a shaded ventilated box 2 metres above the ground.  

I just went out to test our own temperature. I know it’s 32C by own thermometer and by what our Hong Kong Observatory tells me. But I point my thermometer to the ground and it reads 46C in the back yard and 51C in the front yard! HUGE differences between Ground temperatures and Air temperature (the latter the one we actually use and refer to in normal discussion). Whether the ESA meant to fool people is not clear, but fool people they did. And everyone went into a panic. 

The world has been scared by these reports. But they are Fake reports. 

As far as I can see from Mr Google, there is nothing about this in the Mainstream Media. They reported the high -- and wrong -- maximum figures, that is the Ground Temperatures from the ESA,  but have not reported the correct figures. The ESA has corrected itself as reported here, but the MSM have not carried the correction / clarification. Strange, huh!

[I am NOT a “climate denier”!! But we must keep our data true and straight]

ADDED: I’m guessing it won’t be too long before I’m told that believing this temperature anomaly is due to misreporting by the ESA and the MSM is itself a conspiracy theory! And that to doubt Sicily hit 48-50 C is to be a Climate denier!