Much of the East coast experienced record snowfalls this winter, and May was the sixth consecutive month of temperatures below seasonal norms, according to global satellite measurements. Only several months ago the British Meteorological Office reported that 1995 was the hottest year on record, edging out 1990 by a bare 0.07 degrees F. Environmental activists proclaimed the announcement as further evidence that human-induced global warming had arrived. Yet all was not right with the data. As readings for only the first 11 months of the year were available, the British scientists estimated December temperatures.
Environmentalists tend to put a lot of faith in the predictive capacity of the computers.
Others suggest that the model projections are hooey. Dr. Richard Lindzen at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology compares model output to predictions from a ouija board, and with some cause. According to the models, the earth should be significantly warmer than it is. Climate computer programmers have had a difficult time including all of the myriad variables that affect the climate, such as clouds and precipitation. One problem of existing models, for instance, is that they are unable to replicate weather fronts.