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Birth of a Boom: Saskatchewan’s Dawning Golden Age by Frontier's David Seymour
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(FB052)
September 26, 2007

The Urban Heat Island Effect in Winnipeg

Executive Summary

  • The surface temperature record is held by many, including the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to be a clear indicator of what is happening to global temperature.
  • However there are serious problems with the surface temperature record relating to differences in human activity near each measuring station.
  • Two weather measurement stations in one city, Winnipeg, show differences in temperature that are bigger than the entire temperature change of last century.
  • The average low temperature recorded at the more isolated and exposed Winnipeg airport location was 2.73 degrees cooler than those recorded at the Forks, in downtown Winnipeg.
  • The average high temperature recorded at the more isolated and exposed Winnipeg airport location was 1.57 degrees cooler than those recorded at the Forks, in downtown Winnipeg.
  • Closing the airport measurement station would create the illusion of a sudden “warming” by these temperature differences in Winnipeg.
  • There is a strong case to be made that changes in the locations of measuring stations and the human activities taking place near them can explain the differences in records.
  • The IPCC have made indecisive attempts at demonstrating that the surface measured data they use is reliable.
  • Changes in surface measured temperatures are significantly different to more reliable satellite measurements.
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    Author's Picture David Seymour

    direct the Centre’s Saskatchewan office from 2007 to 2011. He holds degrees in Electrical Engineering and Philosophy from the University of Auckland, where he also tutored Economics.  In four years working for the Frontier Centre, David carried out extensive media work, presenting policy analysis through local and national television, newspapers, and radio.  His policy columns have been published in newspapers in every province as well as the Globe and Mail and the National Post. David has produced policy research papers on telecommunications privatization, education, environmental policy, fiscal policy, poverty, and taxi deregulation. However, his major project with the Frontier Centre is the annual Local Government Performance Index (LGPI). The inaugural LGPI was released in November 2007 and comes at a time when municipal accounting standards in Canada must improve if the municipal government sector is to reach its potential as an economic growth engine for Canada. David is now a policy advisor in Wellington, New Zealand.



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