{"id":331970,"date":"2024-06-07T08:23:10","date_gmt":"2024-06-07T06:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=331970"},"modified":"2024-06-07T08:23:14","modified_gmt":"2024-06-07T06:23:14","slug":"the-met-office-is-gaslighting-us-with-its-claim-that-our-damp-and-chilly-may-was-warmest-on-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=331970","title":{"rendered":"The Met Office is Gaslighting Us With its Claim that Our Damp and Chilly May Was \u201cWarmest on Record\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From The Daily Sceptic<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BY\u00a0BEN PILE<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Rainy Day Outdoor silhouette<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Weatherwise, it has been a rubbish May. And it has been an abysmal spring. It has been cold and wet. And everyone knows it. But\u00a0according to the Meteorological Office<\/a>, the U.K. has just experienced its hottest ever May, and its hottest ever spring. As news reports and the Met Office\u2019s own press release have correctly indicated, this \u201cmay come as a surprise\u201d to many people who actually live here (rather than on the planet that the Met Office\u2019s scientists inhabit). To those people, many of whom had their heating on for a good part of the month, the Met Office\u2019s statement, as well as the \u201cakshully\u2026\u201d news reports that claim to shed light on the difference between perception and reality, look like actual gaslighting. Even if the claim is true, which remains to be seen, what it reveals is the inadequacy of temperature as a metric on which U.K. climate and energy policy rests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The Met Office\u2019s charts for May and Spring show mean U.K. temperatures far in excess of what most people would expect. The mean temperature for May was a full degree warmer than the next warmest May in 2017. \u2018Mean temperature\u2019 is the average of the minimum and maximum temperatures recorded on one day. And the two extremes is obtained by averaging the highest and lowest temperatures of all stations in the MO\u2019s network of weather stations. But as the following chart shows, while the max temperature is equal highest with 2018, it is the average minimum temperature which really makes May 2024 an outlier at 9\u00b0C, which is 1.2\u00b0C warmer than the next warmest average minimum, which was in May 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The obvious point to make about this is understated by the Met Office, which explains: \u201cThis warmth was especially influenced by high overnight temperatures.\u201d But this speaks to the inadequacy of temperature measurements of this kind to sustain climate change narratives. Whereas fears about global warming are driven by stories of relentless heat driving extreme weather such as heatwaves, wildfires and floods, a slight rise in minimum temperatures is the opposite of extreme: it is mildness. A 9\u00b0C average minimum temperature is not going to boil the planet, set the world on fire, or tear civilisation from its foundations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But alarmists might point to the average maximum for May 2024, which is tied with 2018 as the warmest at 17.2\u00b0C. The problem, however, is that this says very little about what people are actually experiencing. Spring and May 2018 were<\/em> notable for their record-breaking heatwaves. In April 2018, the hottest April temperatures for 70 years were recorded at 29.1\u00b0C, according to the Standard<\/em><\/a>, caused by a huge plume of hot air from Portugal. The following month was the \u201csunniest and warmest on record in U.K.\u201d, according to the Guardian<\/em><\/a>, which began with a heatwave<\/a> in which temperatures of 28.7\u00b0C made it \u201cthe hottest early May bank holiday weekend on record\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither Spring nor May 2024 have had any weather events to compare with 2018. Yet max average temperatures do compare, and May 2024 min average temperatures exceed 2018\u2019s. How can temperature therefore be a useful guide to what\u2019s happening to our climate if it can seemingly underpin both extremely hot weather and extremely disappointing weather?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is perhaps caused by these metrics being produced by cascades of averages. Data from weather stations across a nation that spans nearly 600 miles north to south and 300 miles west to east are mashed together as though a single metric of \u2018climate\u2019 for such a landmass was meaningful. Twenty four-hour minimum temperatures from all these stations are averaged. Then their maximum temperatures are averaged. And then these averages are averaged again to produce the \u2018mean\u2019. But anyone who has spent any time in the northwest of Scotland and the southeast of England know that these are radically different climes \u2013 as different in latitude as the south coast of Spain and its central region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But perhaps the problem is even more radical than that. If the Met Office\u2019s method of working out \u2018average temperatures\u2019 makes a dreary May like the one we\u2019ve just had \u2018hotter\u2019 than one with a historic heatwave, eg May 2018, why should slight increases in \u2018average temperatures\u2019, as per the MO\u2019s definition, concern us at all? The increased average temperature in May was, after all, likely driven by merely milder not extreme weather in a month that most people experienced as colder than average. Average temperature is supposed to be the most important metric of our time. Yet the same metric can mean anything between nearly 30\u00b0C heatwaves in April, and people wearing coats, hats and scarves in the week before summer. And a metric that can mean anything means nothing. It is a junk statistic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of this would matter if the Met Office and Britain\u2019s news media were not so manifestly intent on gaslighting us into political obedience. But they want us to believe that our lives are deeply affected by such metrics, and use the weather forecast<\/a> and news items about the weather to sustain the climate change narrative. Constant reminders of \u2018danger to life\u2019 herald something more than a breeze, a balmy evening or a scattered shower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to see for myself how the raw data had been turned into this kind of zombie climate stat. It has been a long time since I bothered doing a deep dive into meteorological data, because it turns out that you do not need any kind of weather statistics to know, for absolute sure, that there is no \u2018climate crisis\u2019<\/a>, so I haven\u2019t felt the need. However, I was surprised to discover that data from the weather stations that are used in the Met Office\u2019s analysis are not available to the public at higher than monthly resolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s a problem because in order to build an estimate of how useful minimum and maximum temperature data are, even in one location, never mind across an entire country, it would need to be compared to hourly data at a minimum. But not even daily data are available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might have thought that scientists and institutions that are so keen to tell us that their metric is so significant would be just as keen to make all of that data available to us. But you would be mistaken. The data is jealously guarded. It\u2019s not for public consumption. We are supposed to take the good faith of institutional science for granted and are neither welcome nor even permitted to check for ourselves. \u2018Follow the science\u2019, means \u2018obey\u2019, not \u2018try to understand\u2019. And that\u2019s what makes me \u2013 and, I hope, you \u2013 a sceptic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Weatherwise, it has been a rubbish May. And it has been an abysmal spring. It has been cold and wet. And everyone knows it. But according to the Meteorological Office, the U.K. has just experienced its hottest ever May, and its hottest ever spring. As news reports and the Met Office\u2019s own press release have correctly indicated, this \u201cmay come as a surprise\u201d to many people who actually live here (rather than on the planet that the Met Office\u2019s scientists inhabit).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":331977,"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":[691818087,691818808,691820425],"class_list":{"0":"post-331970","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-global-warming","9":"tag-met-office","10":"tag-temperature-record","12":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/05294518.webp?fit=1203%2C747&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1omm","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":401109,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=401109","url_meta":{"origin":331970,"position":0},"title":"Hottest Summer?","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"09\/09\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Met Office have been widely mocked and accused of gaslighting for declaring that the UK has just had the hottest summer on record, which they say was a whopping 0.4C hotter than 1976.","rel":"","context":"In \"HadUK\"","block_context":{"text":"HadUK","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=haduk"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/OIG-2023-08-09T120430.902.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/OIG-2023-08-09T120430.902.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/OIG-2023-08-09T120430.902.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/OIG-2023-08-09T120430.902.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":265043,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=265043","url_meta":{"origin":331970,"position":1},"title":"Catastrophising Summer Weather","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/07\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The Met Office\u2019s press release is all of course part of a very well organised conspiracy to catastrophise summer weather. The Met Office are at the forefront, with the media in full support. Think about all of the silly Heat Alerts we are given nowadays, and how weather maps that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"1884\"","block_context":{"text":"1884","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=1884"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0ocean-summer-sunset-3.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0ocean-summer-sunset-3.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0ocean-summer-sunset-3.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0ocean-summer-sunset-3.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0ocean-summer-sunset-3.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":235579,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=235579","url_meta":{"origin":331970,"position":2},"title":"Met Office says 2023 set to be one of the hottest years \u201aever\u2018","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"22\/12\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Human-caused effects are asserted but evidence is lacking.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/image-693.png?fit=1158%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/image-693.png?fit=1158%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/image-693.png?fit=1158%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/image-693.png?fit=1158%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/image-693.png?fit=1158%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":205354,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=205354","url_meta":{"origin":331970,"position":3},"title":"BBC\/Met Office Heatwave Predictions Backfire","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"22\/06\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"By Paul Homewood There was inevitably much hype from the BBC\/Met Office about a bit of pleasant weather last week, and the inevitable blaming on climate change: The UK has recorded its hottest day of the year so far, with temperatures set to rise on Friday, the Met Office said.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/0image-56.png?fit=669%2C768&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/0image-56.png?fit=669%2C768&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/0image-56.png?fit=669%2C768&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":265460,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=265460","url_meta":{"origin":331970,"position":4},"title":"Hottest Evah June!","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/07\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The fact that the warmest June came in 1846, and 1676, 1822 and 1826 were also hotter rather demolishes the claims about global warming.","rel":"","context":"In \"BBC\"","block_context":{"text":"BBC","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=bbc"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/02588894.jpg?fit=1200%2C1067&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/02588894.jpg?fit=1200%2C1067&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/02588894.jpg?fit=1200%2C1067&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/02588894.jpg?fit=1200%2C1067&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/02588894.jpg?fit=1200%2C1067&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":401099,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=401099","url_meta":{"origin":331970,"position":5},"title":"EXCLUSIVE: New Freedom of Information Revelation Casts Further Doubt on UK Met Office Claims of \u2018Hottest Evah\u2019 Temperatures","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"09\/09\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Following a Freedom of Information request, the UK Met Office has confirmed that it calculates the daily average temperature at each of its 403 weather stations by dividing the highest and lowest recordings by two. A small technical point of interest only to meteorologists, it might be thought. 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