I RECENTLY received a letter from Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) climate information services assistant director Neil Plummer, regarding a query I lodged last year about 2013 being the hottest year on record (“2013 our warmest year ever – or was it?”, The Land, January 9, p19).
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One issue I raised was why the calculation of annual average temperatures only goes back to 1910.
It is well known there are official recordings extending into the mid to late 19th century.
This truncation of the historic data eliminates an important period for comparison with the present, including the hot years of the Federation drought.
Mr Plummer said a national standardisation of instruments did not occur until 1910.
He said data prior to that was often fragmented, of uncertain or low quality and, in many cases, lacked information about the nature of the instruments and their enclosures.
Such an explanation is, in fact, historically incorrect. Before 1910 many meteorologists were also astronomers, who established observation stations.
The colonial meteorological conferences, held in 1879, 1881 and 1888, included discussions about the communication of meteorological data through the new telegraphic system and also the need for standardisation in the methods of recording, including the installation of Stevenson screens (white boxes with louvres that shelter thermometers and other meteorological equipment from direct heat radiation).
These are now part of a standard weather station and according to Mr Plummer and various recent peer-reviewed papers by leading Australian climate scientists, they were not installed across Australia until 1910.
But this is inconsistent with minutes from meteorological conferences and early newspaper reports. Many current meteorological stations in Australia have long been designated as post office (and formerly telegraph) stations.
By 1854, the South Australian government sought help from the Colonial Office in London to find a suitable superintendent of telegraphs.
Their choice, an electrical engineer, meteorologist and astronomer, Charles Todd, arrived in Adelaide in November 1855. Sir Charles soon had a telegraphic line operating from Adelaide to Melbourne, however, his first passion was meteorology. Everywhere he established a telegraphic office he established a weather station and trained the staff to operate the equipment.
By 1860, Charles Todd was receiving temperature data from 14 stations in South Australia and the Northern Territory. By 1879, he was reporting daily rainfall and temperatures from stations across Australia, and also publishing weather maps, which resembled current synoptic charts.
The BoM, by choosing to ignore these early records, denigrates the work of the government meteorologists from this time. It is a national disgrace, for example, that daily temperature data for Rockhampton is only available from 1939, yet records from a first-class meteorological station established by Clement Wragge date back to September 1889.
These historical records sit in the National Archive – yet to be digitised.
Meanwhile, Neil Plummer, David Jones and other popular voices from the BoM proclaim 2013 as the hottest year on record, and insist there are no credible records before 1910.
If the record for even a limited number of localities within Australia can be extended back to 1860, providing an additional 50 years of data, then this should be a priority.
Dr Jennifer Marohasy is an independent environmental writer and researcher now living near Rockhampton in central Queensland.
