CBC understands the difference between weather and climate, other Canadian news outlets don’t understand it?

From ClimateREALITY

Via H. Sterling Burnett -November 30, 2021

In the context of “atmospheric rivers” that bring substantial rainfall to much of the Pacific Northwest, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has published a thought-provoking article describing the difference between weather and climate. The CBC article is titled, “Weather and climate are not the same. Here’s why it’s important, ” Rejects the notion that repeated atmospheric river events that cause flooding in many British Columbia towns are due to climate change. It’s a weather event.

We all know the story: When a major storm hits, your social media feeds are flooded with photos and stories, and conversations with friends and family inevitably turn to what happening all around us.

Whether it’s flooding, as we’re seeing in BC, or a winter outburst like the one that recently hit Alberta and Saskatchewan, events often come with a lot of jargon to sift through.

Low pressure, jet currents, polar vortexes, atmospheric rivers… the list goes on.

And even the most popular terms – like weather and climate – can be deceiving.

Those two terms are sometimes used interchangeably, and while they are linked, they actually refer to different things.

With weather and climate, the biggest factor is time.

Weather refers to the short term.

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Weather systems can also bring extremely unusual conditions to an area….

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[C]limate is determined by the long-term mean.

Climate refers to the atmospheric trends for an area.

It looks at weather conditions specific to a given area and averages them over a certain period of time.

Climate data is closely monitored over certain time periods.

This ensures that the data we see is the most accurate representation of our climate.

For example, most of the climate data from Environment and Climate Change Canada, which we use to establish the “normal,” shows an average for the past 30 years, as opposed to the past 100 years.

Indeed, the climate of a region is usually measured in 30-year increments — mean temperature, precipitation, seasonal wind speed, etc. over a representative 30-year period.

CBC understands well the difference between temporary, seasonal weather events and long-term changes in weather patterns that indicate a changing climate. Accordingly, the CBC did not identify the current flow of atmospheric rivers hitting the Pacific Northwest or the strong winter storms that passed through Alberta and Saskatchewan in mid-November as signs of climate change. They are weather events.

Unfortunately, other media coverage of the atmospheric river event was not so cautious. CTV News, the Toronto Star, and National Post Office, for example, each featured a story by The Canadian Press that discussed “erratic weather,” linking it to human-caused climate change. A story on CTV News, titled “Weather changes rapidly as Canada enters winter,” said the Weather Network. is typical of coverage.

Much of the story discusses the fact that wildly fluctuating temperatures, wind speeds, and snowfall are normal this time of year across much of Canada, especially when La Nina conditions prevail.

“The Weather Network’s chief meteorologist Chris Scott says cooler water temperatures in the Pacific are creating what are commonly known as La Nina conditions, which often lead to dramatic variation across southern Canada. ,” said The Canadian Press. “Scott says the results will sometimes be like ‘variable weather’ this winter as temperatures and precipitation fluctuate between the poles throughout the season.

“He said British Columbia and much of the Prairie province were looking for above-average rainfall and colder than average temperatures, noting that recent torrential downpours that caused widespread flooding in BC were one particularly clear example,” wrote The Canadian Press.

History shows that atmospheric river events were normal in British Columbia and across the broader Pacific Northwest in November, even if not enhanced by El Nino.

The fact that the recent flooding was caused by an entirely natural weather event is further confirmed by research conducted by Professor Cliff Mass, PhD at the University of Washington, and discussed in a panel discussion. recently Climate realism story.

Unfortunately, instead of ending the story there, Scott and The Canadian Press strayed into climate alarmism. Without citing any evidence of long-term changes in average weather, the Canadian Press story said:

While the La Nina models are far from fiction, Scott said recent extreme weather events that swept away critical infrastructure and even resulted in more deaths in British Columbia bore signs of climate change. broader climate change.

He likens the result of rising global temperatures to a pair of dice that have been finely weighted to make certain weather events more or less likely.

Long-term variation of extreme weather changes, higher temperatures following lower and greater-than-average rainfall after prolonged drought, accompanied by significant variability Average temperature and precipitation over an area consistently over a 30-year period can also be a signal of climate change. But we don’t have that in the Pacific Northwest.

As a table that Mass provides details, flooding in the area affected by the recent atmospheric river event has been common throughout its history. (see table below).

What we have across the region is a modest 100-year average increase in temperature, no measurable long-term increase in extreme weather events, or above or below average rainfall. jar. Therefore, there is no evidence of dangerous climate change across the Northwest.

The long-term modest increase in temperature has tracked population growth and development throughout the region and can therefore be best explained by the urban heat island effect rather than by anthropogenicity. Climate Change.

CBC follows strictly US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other scientific bodies in distinguishing between weather and climate. There is no evidence that climate change is causing or enhancing the extreme weather events experienced by the Pacific Northwest recently. Instead of trying to turn every extreme weather into a climate-changing mountain, corporate media should stick to reporting facts and following science. The science-sounding claims of climate alerters may make good headlines but they are false, intended to blur the lines between weather and climate for political gain.H. Sterling BurnettH. Sterling Burnett, Ph.D. is managing editor of Environment & Climate News and a research fellow in environmental and energy policy at the Heartland Institute. Burnett has worked at the National Center for Policy Analysis for 18 years, most recently as a senior fellow in charge of the NCPA’s environmental policy program. He has held various positions in public and professional policy organizations, including serving as a member of the Environmental and Natural Resources Task Force on the Texas e-Texas committee. Comptroller.