Spot what's missing here

Down here in Mellie we're currently basking in sunshine and unusually warm temperatures for the time of year, it still being winter and all. And since Victorians, though many wouldn't admit it, like to chat about the weather as much as the English it's no surprise to see a news report or two on it. Here's one from The Age, which I'm going to quote en bloc since I think it's notable for something it doesn't say. Read all the way through and see if you end up thinking the same thing as I did.

Melburnians have revelled in record-breaking warmth today and can expect more freak winter warmth in the coming days as the city experiences an unseasonably sunny start to August.

The top temperature in the city reached 20.2 just after 2.30pm, the warmest ever August 2.

Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Stuart Coombs said it was the warmest start to August since records began in 1855.

In Geelong and Avalon, the mercury climbed to just over 22 degrees.

The Bureau has nudged up tomorrow's forecast maximum from 20 degrees to 21 degrees and expects Thursday will reach 22 degrees.

Mr Coombs said if the Bureau's forecasts were correct, Wednesday and Thursday will also be the highest recorded temperatures on those dates.

The city’s previously hottest August 2 was recorded at 19.5 degrees way back in 1873.

Nights have also been remarkably warm for mid-winter, with the minimum temperature in the city hitting 11.7 degrees at 3.46am today.

That is five degrees above the average minimum temperature for August.

Other parts of the state are also enjoying pleasant conditions. Mildura hit nearly 27 degrees today, Orbost reached just over 20 degrees and Kyabram nearly 21 degrees.

But the sunshine won't last.

"Let's face it, in Melbourne these things never do," Mr Coombs said.

"We will see a cold front gradually crossing the state by the end of the week bringing rain and cooler conditions by the weekend."

The temperature is expected to drop to low and mid teens by Saturday and between 10 and 20 mm of rain to fall from Friday.

This week's mild conditions are being created by a high pressure system over the Tasman sea and northerly winds over Victoria.

Did you see it? Or rather not see it because it isn't there? An article about unseasonably warm weather with not one single mention of climate whinge, emissions, carbon taxes or any of the other warble gloaming catastrophist agitprop that's so often regurgitated for these kind of stories. And it's not the first time recently that I've scrolled down a weather story looking for the almost inevitable 'the Earth is angry because you drive a Land Rover' line only to find it's not there.

Why do you think that is? I'd like to think it's a sign that the whole trope is gradually suffocating in its own bullshit and climate science might soon return to an honest approach, being open about the huge amount of uncertainty there is and the vast number of things that remains unknown about how the climate works, or perhaps that the media is finally becoming bored with linking everything to warble gloaming. But there's another possibility too. There have been some damned cold winters in the last few years, and here in Oz our decade long and allegedly warble gloaming induced drought broke all of its own accord.* And each time the catastrophists have said, quite correctly, that these are weather events rather than climate. The trouble is that sceptics have always said the same thing about warm weather events that the catastrophists and their media fellow travellers have beaten up as indicators of coming disaster, and weren't slow to point out the hypocrisy of pointing fingers at our industrialised lifestyles when there's a heatwave before dismissing a cold snap as 'just weather'.

Maybe the science is getting more honest and maybe the MSM are getting over it and looking for the next long term scare so that terrorism doesn't have to do all the heavy lifting on its own.** But maybe the savvier catastrophists have realised that to the layman this seems like they're trying to have their cake and eat it and this is less a surrender and more a tactical withdrawal. It'll be interesting to see which.

* How dare it not wait a year or two so the carbon tax we're about to be screwed by could try to claim some credit, but of course some pinned the blame for the rainfall on warble gloaming anyway. The scientific formula is very simple: any negative consequences of any kind = evidence of warble gloaming.
** The events of the last week make me wonder if the next scare down at the MSM's joint bullshit production facility will be libertarians and anarchists. I'd be kind of flattered since I don't think I've ever been scary before.