A BBC meteorologist has effortlessly dismantled a GB News host’s denials about climate change, just by pointing out how weather forecasting works.
On Monday evening, after wildfires were reported across Greek islands as southern Europe endured yet another day of the current heatwave, TV presenter Neil Oliver tried to debunk climate concerns as fearmongering.
He claimed the “terrifying temperatures that were being predicted all starting with a 4, with a 40-this and a 40-that” supposedly all began with a satellite picture which looked at ground temperature.
Speaking to fellow GB News host Dan Wootton live on air, he alleged this has never been the means to measure temperature before, and that usually the air temperature slightly above the ground is what makes up forecasts.
He alleged the “BBC and others are driving this narrative” and that the air temperatures in areas which are reportedly very hot at the moment were actually facing temperatures around the 30s.
BBC Weather reported on Monday that Athens observed 39C, while Corfu and Rhodes experienced 37C and Lamia faced a shocking 45C – but Oliver suggested these reports were just a means to control the public.
“When it comes to trying to get control of people again, it’s to make them terrified of the weather. The whole thing is so transparently, blatantly, dishonest,” he said.
He claimed people are being manipulated by “fear of the summer” and that they need to “turn their backs” on the media.
However, a BBC meteorologist, Tomasz Schafernaker, replied to Oliver’s claims by tearing them apart.
He tweeted: “This is absolutely not true. The temperature being reported is AIR temperature above ground (over 1metre+), not the GROUND temperature.
“Ground temperature will have been even higher in many of those locations, well in excess of 50[C].”
In the comments, he added: “Any temperature records reported on TV will also refer to the same standard AIR height. It absolutely has to. Any other readings are used for different things, not TV.”
The Met Office also explained on its government website how it measures temperature, and notes that a thermometer is placed in a shelter called a Stevenson screen at a heigh of “1.25m above the ground”.
This echoes the explanation on the BBC Weather’s website too, which says its own Stevenson screen is at a “standardised height” for accurate temperature readings.