The Obfuscation Report

Where's Cavuto's Headline:

NATION FACES RECORD HEAT WAVE: PROOF OF GLOBAL WARMING?

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Sure we've seen plenty of long stretches of hot weather here before, but in the 130 plus years of record keeping in Louisville, none have been sustained as long as the current one, making it "the longest heat wave of them all.”

It looked like Saturday was the day we would break the streak of days at or above 90 degrees. The streak had reached 19 the day before and was getting precariously close to the all-time record of 21 straight days last set way back during the “dust bowl era” in 1936. However, following the passage of a cool front, it appeared that temperatures would stay just shy of the 90-degree mark with forecasted highs only in the upper 80's on Saturday.

Despite the significantly cooler conditions though, somehow the official high temperature at the airport made it all the way up to 90 degrees by late Saturday afternoon. That, of course, kept the streak alive and pushed it to 20 days. With Sunday's high temperature weighing in at 96 degrees, the 71 year old record of "the longest heat wave" had finally met its match.

The Heat Wave of 2007 has already eclipsed many records. No less than 10 daily record temperatures have been reached since the first week of August. Five times now the mercury has topped out above 100 degrees including a mark of 105 degrees set last Thursday that tied the all-time highest temperature ever recorded during the month of August in Louisville!

Monday’s high topped out at a whopping 98 degrees, officially making the Heat Wave of 2007 "the longest heat wave of them all.” With temperatures forecasted to remain above 90 Tuesday through Saturday this week, the record won’t just be broken, but it might be smashed to bits! For some reason, this Heat Wave of 2007 seems to remind me a lot of the Barry Bonds home run chase… We all knew it would eventually happen, but no body really wanted it to. I mean, who really wants more 90 or 100-degree weather?

Well, we should be used to the heat by now and this week looks no different than the last three... more very hot and humid conditions on the way. In fact, with 100's a possibility again later this week, more records may be broken… Like the most 100-degree days during the month of August. We're at five on that one and the record is only six! Or the warmest August of all time? That's right, were on track for that one too.

If there is any consolation to all this unbearable heat, it’s that some day we'll look back and tell our kids about how we lived through "the longest heat wave of them all” during the summer of 2007. Or maybe we can just look forward to October?

Remember what Fox News Moron Neil Cavuto said when it was cold out?

A segment on global warming on the January 17 edition of Fox News' Your World featured on-screen graphics that read: "Global Warming?" and "Nation in a Deep Freeze: What Global Warming?" Host Neil Cavuto began the segment by noting freezing temperatures in Texas, Arizona, and California and asking if these temperatures were "[p]roof that all this hype over global warming could be just that -- hype?"

As Media Matters for America has noted, weather in a portion of the United States is not indicative of whether the Earth is warming. As the National Climatic Data Center noted in its preliminary 2006 report, "[f]ollowing the warmest year on record for the globe in 2005, the annual global temperature for 2006 is expected to be sixth warmest since recordkeeping began in 1880." That report also noted that "the 2006 annual average temperature for the contiguous United States (based on preliminary data) will likely be 2 [degrees] F (1.1 [degrees] C) above the 20th Century mean, which would make 2006 the third warmest year on record."

The Your World segment featured commentary by Forbes editor in chief and former Republican presidential hopeful Steve Forbes, Forbes on Fox commentator Michele Steele, and Forbes Silicon Valley bureau chief Quentin Hardy.

From the January 17 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto:

CAVUTO: Twenty-four degrees in Fresno, 29 degrees in Phoenix, down to 9 degrees in Amarillo, Texas, and on and on. It is some of the coldest air in this part of the country in 20 years. Proof that all of this hype over global warming could be just that -- hype?