UK Met Office forecasts several years of cooler than expected temperatures

[Mark]

“The Met Office yesterday predicted cooler than expected temperatures for the next five years,” says this article by John Ingham.
 
The Met Office blamed their revised forecast on the “natural variability of the climate system”, notably changes in ocean surface temperatures.
 
But the admission has been branded as embarrassing.
 
“If the latest Met Office prediction is correct, it will prove to be a lesson in humility, said David ­Whitehouse, of Lord Lawson’s Global Warming Policy Foundation.
 
Thirteen months ago the Met Office predicted that temperatures for 2012-16 would be 0.54C above average.
 
The new admission “will show that the previous predictions given so confidently as advice to the UK Government and so unquestioningly accepted by the media were wrong and that the so-called sceptics who were derided for questioning them were on the right track,” said Whitehouse
 
His colleague Dr Benny Peiser said: “These figures show that in all likelihood we will have had no warming in the past 20 years.
 
“That is almost as embarrassing as the Met Office’s ­Barbecue Summer forecast.
 
“This suggests that the Government’s climate change policies, including wind farms, are a waste of money and based on dodgy advice. Why should we trust Met Office forecasts about the climate for 2050 or 2100 if they get it wrong for the next decade?”
 
But climate scientists rallied, emphasizing that climate change has to be assessed over decades, not five years.
 
“There’s nothing in these forecasts that undermines the long-term climate change ­scenario,” said Met Office chief scientists Julia Slingo.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/369564/Surprise-Surprise-Global-warming-has-stalled-admits-Met-Office

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[Rwood]

Political spin. The statement that there has been no warming in the last 20 years is unmitigated drivel.

For those who would like more on this story, this thread focuses on an illiterate rant by one Delingpole, a notorious tabloid "journalist".

http://www.ukweatherworld.co.uk/forum/index.php?/topic/95643-met-office-not-fit-for-purpose/

"Coolists" in the US are upset by the fact that 2012 beat the previous warmest recorded year there by "a whole degree" (1F that is). A bit of a bone in their throats.

[Suezy]

Thank you Mark a very interesting article indeed.

[JennyLeez]

Well I have just hunted high and low but I can not find the article which was headed the exact opposite I read a couple of days ago.
I think it was the herald but cant be sure. It read something like:
NZ's forecast for the next several years is warmer than expected temperatures.

So my question is, what is this telling us please?

[Rwood]

I think what you saw Jenny may have been the seasonal outlook for the rest of NZ's summer, though on the NIWA website it doesn't mention warmer than average temperatures. Can't find a Herald story at this point.

This link should provide enough background to the original UK story, with several references within it for background.

http://weatherearthnews.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/11th-january-todays-news-delingpole.html

There was absolutely no assertion that "warming had stalled". Only a wilful misinterpretation of METO's remarks could come up with this.

[JennyLeez]

Thanks Rupert.
An argument I can see from mega reading will never be resolved in our life.
I think this forum is best to leave Global Warming and anything to do with it well alone as going off other forums, blogs and comments it seems to spark nothing but unrest and unpleasantness amongst those posting.

Just my 2 cents worth.