{"id":253560,"date":"2023-04-18T19:17:44","date_gmt":"2023-04-18T17:17:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=253560"},"modified":"2023-04-18T19:17:47","modified_gmt":"2023-04-18T17:17:47","slug":"no-washington-post-tax-season-is-not-getting-longer-due-to-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=253560","title":{"rendered":"No, Washington Post, Tax Season is Not Getting Longer Due to \u2018Climate Change\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From ClimateRealism<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Anthony Watts<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Washington Post<\/em> (WaPo) ran a story on April 17, 2023, titled \u201cTax season is getting longer. Blame climate change.<\/a>\u201d Not only is the story written by Jacob Bogage<\/a> flat out wrong, it is patently absurd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bogage writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hurricane and tornado seasons are getting longer because of climate change. So is tax season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IRS granted extensions to taxpayers in seven states to file their taxes this year because of federal disaster declarations. Filers in parts of <\/strong>Tennessee<\/a>, Arkansas<\/a>, and Mississippi<\/a> have until July 31 to submit forms and payments because of severe storm and tornado damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those in certain areas of Alabama, California, and Georgia<\/a> have until Oct. 16, because of winter storms, flooding, mudslides and tornadoes. A winter storm in portions of New York<\/a> means taxpayers there have until May 15 to make filings and payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although it is nice of the IRS to give people involved in weather disasters a break, there\u2019s absolutely no connection to climate change. The tax season extensions are entirely attributable to weather events, and weather is not climate \u2013 they operate on vastly different timescales. As defined in Climate at a Glance: Weather vs. Climate<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) defines<\/a> climate as \u201c\u2026the average weather conditions for a particular location and over a long period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To create a climate record, 30 years of weather data is averaged to create a \u201cnormal\u201d climate expectation for a location or region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What we experience on a day-to-day basis are weather events, not climate events. Weather is not climate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even more important is the fact that there is no hard evidence that the extreme weather events Bogage cites in his article have become more frequent, severe, or have extended over a longer season. Real-world data\u00a0shows<\/a>, the number of strong tornadoes, F3 or higher, like the ones mentioned in the WaPo article have been\u00a0dramatically<\/em>\u00a0declining over the past 45 years, as seen in Figure 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Figure 1. This figure shows the frequency of strong to violent tornadoes (tornadoes registering EF3 or stronger) has been declining since the early 1970s. Sources: Graph by Anthony Watts using official NOAA\/Storm Prediction Center data. https:\/\/www.spc.noaa.gov\/wcm<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further, in 2017-2018, the U.S. set a record<\/a> for the longest period in history without an F3 or stronger tornado. According to the most recent report<\/a> by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), \u201cThere is low confidence in observed trends in small spatial-scale phenomena such as tornadoes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The WaPo\u2019s article also mentioned flooding, of which the\u00a0IPCC also says there\u2019s no attributable climate change related trend<\/a>, saying \u201cpresently we have only low confidence in numerical projections of changes in flood magnitude or frequency resulting from climate change.\u201d In fact, a direct measure of flood impact comes from data provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. As Figure 2 shows, the cost of flood losses has dramatically declined over the last century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Figure 2. U.S. flood damage as a proportion of U.S. gross domestic product. Data plotted by Bjorn Lomborg. Data Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The WaPo also points to no evidence that mudslides, which can result from heavy rain and flooding, have increased. The IPCC has no opinion on winter storms, but it would stand to reason that in a warmer world, winter storm events would be less impactful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The WaPo allowed Bogage\u2019s unsupported opinions to sub in for easily verified facts. Bogage\u2019s assertions are thoroughly refuted by the available evidence. The IRS may be kindly stretching out tax season for some unfortunate people who suffered losses to various natural disasters, but they were just that, natural disasters, not evidence or long-term trends or a signal of climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s only one way to describe the WaPo\u2019s unprofessional behavior:\u00a0incompetence or willful ignorance<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Anthony Watts<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anthony Watts is a senior fellow for environment and climate at The Heartland Institute. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watts has been in the weather business both in front of, and behind the camera as an on-air television meteorologist since 1978, and currently does daily radio forecasts. He has created weather graphics presentation systems for television, specialized weather instrumentation, as well as co-authored peer-reviewed papers on climate issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He operates the most viewed website in the world on climate, the award-winning website wattsupwiththat.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Washington Post\u00a0(WaPo) ran a story on April 17, 2023, titled \u201cTax season is getting longer. Blame climate change.\u201d Not only is the story written by\u00a0Jacob Bogage\u00a0flat out wrong, it is patently absurd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":202720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818056,691818381,691818668,691818667],"class_list":{"0":"post-253560","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-climate-change","9":"tag-ipcc","10":"tag-the-washington-post","11":"tag-wapo","13":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/0534273-popular-funny-stupid-wallpapers-2000x1500-pc.jpg?fit=2000%2C1500&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-13XG","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":280578,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=280578","url_meta":{"origin":253560,"position":0},"title":"No, Washington Post, Antarctica Didn\u2019t Have the \u201cMost Intense Heat Wave Ever Recorded\u201d","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"26\/09\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0Kasha Patel, a writer for\u00a0The Washington Post\u00a0(WaPo) created a story that is likely in the top 10 most false and egregious climate scare stories ever published. 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