I was going to do a little excel graph plotting a nice el nino/viejo index readily available from the Japanese Meterological Association (JMA) from 1864 to present against precipitation for the same period in the San Francisco area. I am quite certain that SF precip data are available somewhere since at least 1848. I was appalled to find that it is virtually impossible to get simple historical climate data online. It strikes me that we have spent millions if not billions of dollars funding the National Climate Data Center and like state agencies. This information should be readily available.

Try googling “precipitation data for (your town) from 1860 to present”. What I get is a few irrelevant sites for extreme weather events, current condidtions, and maybe a reference to the NCDC. The National Climate Data Center clearly does not want to dispense the raw data, which in my opinion is their charter.

The google tally very quickly segues to global warming this and climate change that. Exactly the tone of the NCDC site . I’m not asking for an opinion, just give me the data.

The problem seems to boil down to the notion some in the scientific community have that they are uniquely qualified to read and interpret the scripture. Like the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages, they would have us  kneel in the knave while they drone in latin…