In the past week, the media went full yellow journalism on global weather and summer heat spells. It looks like a behind-the-scenes coordinated effort across numerous media outlets. (The term “yellow journalism” comes from the original use of the color yellow to draw attention.)

They breathlessly told us for days that Death Valley’s Badwater weather station would exceed the 134 degree record set in 1913, then backed off to say it was going to be 130 degrees – and eventually it reached 127.6, below the media hype.[1] They also had quotes from scientists claiming they don’t believe the 1913 record. Some additional history here.

They’ve reported on ground surface temperature in Spain at a scary sounding 60 deg C (but this is a normal temperature) and the South China Morning Post in China went full nonsense saying tourists were visiting an area to experience “80 deg C” heat. Not until the end did you learn the maximum air temperature was 97 deg F and the 80 deg C was the temperature of the ground, in the sun. Normal summer conditions.

I demonstrated this is normal by measuring local ground surface temperatures using the same equipment used by the NWS in Las Vegas. All normal temperatures.

Reporting ground surface temperatures is yellow journalism – which is the art of using hype and exaggeration to sell news. Since most of us have no idea what a normal ground surface temperature is going to be, the high numbers sound scary but they are normal.

The way to inform people on climate issues is to stick with facts and logic. When the media goes full propaganda nonsense, their messaging is a turn off – and causes people to ignore the noise and nonsense.

To continue in the vein of yellow journalism, we now get the hottest midnight temperature in history – except history is just ten years and limited to only some locations. They know this report is meaningless.

That being said, it’s also important to remember that statistics on maximum nighttime temperature simply aren’t kept, and hourly temperature data has only been kept for about a decade or so. The record may still stand, but it also may not have much to be compared to.

Source: Death Valley Just Had The Hottest Midnight On Record

This sensationalism is called yellow journalism (named for the use of yellow in the papers).

Their reporting on climate is so bad, that is it is now industrial scale disinformation.

[1] For what it is worth, which is not much, my daughter, a geologist, once worked in Death Valley and did the water sampling at Badwater, and was also responsible for the official temperature and weather monitoring system at Furnace Creek.