In typical fashion, Fox News and Drudge Report both picked up the 'tampered temperature data' story from Steve Goddard/The Telegraph. Since the story is still spreading, we thought we'd spell it out:
1) This only looks at US, not global temperature data. Comparing raw and adjusted global temperature data, the trends are almost identical.
2)Adjustments to raw data are necessary, even according to denier blogger Anthony Watts. Measurement practices and technologies have changed over the past century. NOAA's FAQ provides the example that temperatures were once measured in the afternoon and now they are measured in the morning. Mornings are cooler than afternoons, so this change introduced a bias that must be accounted for to know the real temperature trend.
3) Denier attempts to make hay out of adjustments to the temperature record have been around for a while. For example, this line of reasoning was posedand debunkedin 2010, and posedand debunkedagain in 2012.
4) The warming trend is clear and agreed-upon, and was confirmed by sources as diverse as Koch-funded scientist Richard Mueller.