An Illuminating Error in My Recent Terrifying Mauna Loa Post.

[NNadir]

Yesterday I made a post about the data that I found terrifying at the Mauna Loa CO₂ observatory, which smashed a number of records all at once.

This is that post: At the Mauna Loa CO2 Observatory, a Terrifying, Startling Week and Month, New Records Everywhere.

One of the statements in that post was this one:

...the previous year's record is generally surpassed in March, occasionally in April. It has NEVER been passed in February...

This statement, in which I did something one should not do when one is handling data was "...off the top of my head..." was wrong, very wrong. My excuse is that I was pretty shaken by all the other data which is correct.

Recognizing I had done this, I went back to check myself and showed that my statement excerpted above was incorrect. In the following years, the previous year's record was surpassed during February: 1988, 1998, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2013, and 2021.

What is interesting about these years is where they rank among the worst 65 years recorded at Mauna Loa based on the average reading in that year.

1988 was the worst year on record when it was recorded; it now ranks as the 9th worst year out of 65 years of records. (An increase of 2.38 ppm over the 1987 average.)

1998 was the worst year on record when it was recorded; it now ranks as the 2nd worst year out of 65 years of records . (An increase of 2.96 ppm over the 1997 average.)

2003 ranks as the 6th worst year out of 65 years of records. (An increase of 2.53 ppm over the 2002 average.)

2005 does not rank in the top ten out of 65 years of records. (An increase of 2.28 ppm over the 2004 average.)

2009 does not rank in the top ten out of 65 years of records. (An increase of 1.81 ppm over the 2008 average.)

2010 ranks as the 5th worst year out of 65 years of records . (An increase of 2.58 ppm over the 2009 average.)

2013 ranks as the 4th worst year out of 65 years of records . (An increase of 2.68 ppm over the 2012 average.)

2021 does not rank in the top ten out of 65 years of records. (An increase of 2.21 ppm over the 2004 average.)

In the worst year ever recorded, 2016, an increase of 3.40 ppm over the 2015 average, the previous year's record was not recorded in February.

It was recorded in January.

Only one other year thus far has passed the previous year's record in January.

That year is 2024.

The new record was set in first in the week beginning January 28, 2024, 422.28 ppm. It was surpassed the very next week, the most recent week recorded as of this writing, that of the week beginning February 4, 2024, which reported an astounding, shocking and terrifying 425.83 ppm, blowing all previous records out of the water by an unprecedented amount. The data was, by the way, corrected on data review at the Mauna Loa Observatory, an increase of 0.01 ppm from that reported in my previous post linked above. All other remarks in that post are correct.

If the trend holds, which it did not do in 2021, 2009 and 2005 by making it into the "top ten," we are in for a hell of a year in accumulations of the dangerous fossil fuel waste CO₂ in 2024, a hell of a year.

Unbelievable, utterly unbelievable, were it not for the truth that it is real.

Have fun on Super Bowl evening. I think I'll have a drink.

History will not forgive us, nor should it.