Quick Fact: Hannity again wrong on 2009 temps in attack on global warming

Special Programs Climate & Energy

Written by Solange Uwimana

Published

On his radio show, Sean Hannity baselessly asserted that 2009 is “the 9th coldest year on record” to claim that “global warming is a crock,” “it's been proven a lie,” and “it's a huge cover-up.” In fact, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), and Britain's Met Office have stated that, to date, 2009 is among the warmest years on record.

Hannity: 2009 is “the 9th coldest year on record”

From the December 1 broadcast of ABC Radio Networks' The Sean Hannity Show:

HANNITY: Yeah, global warming is a crock, and it's been proven a lie. And it's a huge cover-up. And [White House press secretary] Robert Gibbs, the propagandist, is out there saying, “Despite this outright lie, climate change is still happening.” And yet, it's the 9th coldest year on record that we have chronicled.

Fact: Major climate data centers indicate that thus far, 2009 is among the warmest years on record

NOAA's National Climatic Data Center stated in its October Global Analysis that "[f]or the year to date, the global combined land and ocean surface temperature of 14.7 °C (58.4 °F) tied with 2007 as the fifth-warmest January-through-October period on record." Similarly, a GISS comparison of 2009 temperature to the two years with the warmest annual means found that 2009 year-to-date global temperature ranks fifth warmest out of 130 years. The BBC also reported on November 24 that "[t]his year will be one of the top five warmest years globally since records began 150 years ago, according to figures compiled by the Met Office." The BBC further reported that "[o]ther sources say it could even be the third warmest."

Fact: Monthly U.S. temps not representative of global climate

NOAA stated in its October "National Overview" that "[t]he average October temperature of 50.8°F was 4.0°F below the 20th Century average" and that "[f]or the nation as a whole, it was the third coolest October on record." Hannity may be mistaking the U.S. national October temperature for the global annual temperature. Globally, October was “the sixth warmest October on record,” according to NOAA. And data for the year thus far, rather than for one month, indicate that 2009 is among the warmest years on record for the planet.