Hey, don't laugh! This is sewious!CLIMATE scientists yesterday stunned Britons suffering the coldest winter for 30 years by claiming last month was the Âhottest January the world has ever seen.
The remarkable claim, based on global satellite data, follows Arctic temperatures that brought snow, ice and travel chaos to millions in the UK.
At the height of the big freeze, the entire country was blanketed in snow. But Australian weather expert Professor Neville Nicholls, of Monash University in Melbourne, said yesterday: "January, according to satellite data, was the hottest January we've ever seen.
"Last November was the hottest November we've ever seen. November-January as a whole is the hottest November-January the world has seen." Veteran Âclimatologist Professor Nicholls was speaking at an online climate change briefing, added: "It's not warming the same everywhere but it is really quite challenging to find places that haven't warmed in the past 50 years."
His extraordinary claims came after the World Meteorological Organisation revealed 2000 to 2009 was the hottest decade since records began in 1850.
But UK forecaster Jonathan Powell, of Positive Weather Solutions, said: "If it is the case and it is borne out that January was the hottest on record, it is still no marker towards climate change. "It's all part of a cyclical issue and nothing should be read too deeply into that.
"It's been the coldest for 30 years in Britain but we predicted that and climate change always tends t o throw up anomalies. It's all in line with predictions and I won't be sold on climate change at all. The data is either faulty or manufactured to make it look like it shouldn't."
The Met Office yesterday revealed it would re-examine 150 years of world temperature records to restore faith in its data in the wake of a number of high-profile blunders dubbed "climategate". Scientists advancing claims of man-made climate change were humiliated when emails emerged suggesting researchers at the University of East Anglia had been selective with weather data. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change also wrongly claimed the Himalayan glaciers could melt away in 25 years. Most scientists have said it will take 300 years for the glaciers to disappear.
Following the embarrassing revelations, the Daily Express published a dossier of 100 reasons why the rise in world temperatures is natural and not caused by man. The report, by the European Foundation, dismissed suggestions that raised levels of carbon dioxide would bring difficulties, saying it would encourage crop yields and support food production.
Now the Met Office has pledged to go back as far as 1850 to check its statistics.
Yesterday the IPCC and the University of East Anglia were also preparing to defend their research.
Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, flew to Bali to try to convince the UN to back the troubled organisation. Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband urged Dr Pachauri to make sure no future mistakes were made. He said: "There have been mistakes made, clearly. It's important that those mistakes are looked at.
"I've written to Dr Pachauri to emphasise our support but also our wish that they look at their procedures to try to eliminate these sorts of errors. But the overall picture is very clear, which is that climate change is happening, it is real, it is man-made."
In the Commons, Ann Winterton, Tory MP for Congleton, asked: "Will the Government change its mind about the huge subsidies to land-based wind farms, which are not only ineffective but also despoil the countryside?" Mr Miliband replied bluntly: "No, we won't."
The University of East Anglia submitted its evidence to Parliament's science and technology committee yesterday, denying it had altered climate change statistics. It said evidence that the university's Climate Research Unit had hidden data showing a decline in temperature was "richly misinterpreted and quoted out of context".
But the university said it would review the climate science produced by the unit.