Having read a bit on how the earth is warming due to man made emissions in the atmosphere.  No wait, that’s not right.  Oh yes, I remember now. I  have actually read about how the surface temperatures in the world are actually controlled primarily by the oceans, I wondered what difference there might be in temperature trends (if any) between coastal locations and inland spots.  If the oceans have that much influence on air temperatures, we should see some differences between coastal and inland locations.  That was the theory anyway.

The BOM ( Bureau of Meteorology) has pretty good user friendly records to peruse,

Tasmania

although some have questioned the validity of some of them.  Anyway, I looked for the longest non urban records I could find around Australia, attempting to get pairs of sites, one coastal and one inland in similar geographical locations (not always possible).

The following charts show the average monthly minimums for various locations around Australia.

Bushy Park and Cape Bruny Lighthouse in Tasmania have temperature records going back to 1901.

Bushy Park vs Bruny Lighthouse Tasmania

Moving a bit further north into Victoria with the record starting in the 1800’s.

Southern Victoria

Echuca vs Wilson’s Promontory Lighthouse Victoria

Moving a little west either side of the Victorian, South Australian border.

Starting to see a picture?  Now I know many will say that I am just cherry picking sites with opposing trends, but any way you look at this, it just does not seem consistent with the Global Warming theme where it is the “C02” charged atmosphere that is warming the earth.

Here is an example of a couple of towns in Western Australia.

Western Australia

Cape Leeuwin clearly shows some warming being on the coast while Northam is pretty well flat. No warming or cooling for that matter.

Northam Vs Cape Leeuwin W.A.

The only long term coastal record in New South Wales was Sydney, so I did not include this one, even thought the results were much the same. Queensland has a good pair though.

Queensland

Amberley Airport VS Cape Moreton Lighthouse QLD

It certainly does appear the oceans play a major role in atmospheric temperatures.  Where as the current thinking is that the atmospheric composition is the major player in world temperatures, focussed predominantly on carbon dioxide, while the ocean temps are considered secondary or a consequence of atmospheric temps.

Consider the difference in mass of the oceans and the atmosphere.

The atmosphere has a mass of about 5×1018 kgs

The mass of the oceans is approximately 1350×1018  kgs

That is more than 1000 times the mass of the atmosphere and this is why the oceans will have a dominant effect on the atmospheric temperature and not the other way around.  The real question about our global climate should be why have the oceans warmed, and not how much carbon dioxide is in the air.

So, enjoy the weather you have where ever you are, and feel ok that you are not destroying the planet, by driving your car or turning the lights on.

JTF