Representative Pramila Jayapal from Washington State, a member of the far-left “Squad” in the U.S. House, recently posted on X a map of afternoon high temperatures and their departures from normal.
Boston for example was 17 degrees warmer than usual on that day. Jaypal wrote in the post: "This is Climate Change."
Climatologist David Legates of the Cornwall Alliance disagrees.
"The interesting thing is when it's really hot, they always point to the event and say, 'See that proves my theory.' When it's a really cold spell, and you point to that and say, 'What happened here?' The old answer used to be, 'You can't point to a single event as proof that it doesn't happen,' but usually now what they say it's either 'weather whiplash' or 'weather weirding.'”
He said in any extreme weather event, we must ask the question: "Is this really a rare event and if it is, "Is it related to an increase in greenhouse gases?"
Citing a Philadelphia TV station, Legates said it was the first time the city had hit 100 degrees in 13 years. Weather records show that the 1930s stick out for hot weather as did other periods of time, and it's been this hot before, he said.
"So, to point to that and say, 'This is global climate change. This is our global warming signal,' but 90 years ago we had a much, much stronger signal than we have now. What caused that? At some point you have to say, 'can't this simply be natural variability?’”
He also added that some weather stations are in urban heat islands now as opposed to years ago, and this makes a difference in the temperature record. Finally, he said it could be land use change, greenhouse gases or natural variability, and it's hard to know which is the driver.
