The zig zag hockey stick, and the lessening storms

Two recent pieces of research help to dispel two parts of the warmist mantra. Published in 'Energy and Environment' Craig Loehle takes the average of eighteen 2000-year-long series to confirm for warmists the existence of the Medieval Warm Period. Explains Lubos Motl, with tongue slightly in cheeck

Loehle has eliminated tree ring series from his datasets, explaining that they don't seem to be good temperature proxies. The result is a new kind of a hockey stick (pictured above), the so-called zig-zag hockey stick. ;-) The new blade in the middle of the stick is called the Medieval Warm Period.

Loehle's paper is audited by Steve McIntyre at Climate Audit here and here. Head over and join in.

And you've heard that storms have been increasing over the last century? Not so, says research soon to be published in 'Climate Dynamics' that finds "storminess" - high winds - "hasn't changed in Europe during the 20th century" that complements similar numbers showing hurricanes haven't been increasing across the US, despite what the headlines and Al Bore's flawed film might suggest. And Jeremy Clarkson reckons Europe doesn't get good storms in any case. Europeans, he says, need to harden up, before laws are passed forcing us to stay at home when the Met Office has decided it will be windy.

Just thought you'd like to know.

UPDATE 1: On the premise that seems to be that it's okay to lie but it's not okay to call a liar names, some folk are upset at me giving Saint Al the pejorative name Al Bore. This is presumably because they find The Goracle exciting, or perhaps because they think Lord Gore of Nashville deserves greater respect -- though how any thinking person could dredge up respect for the Gorangutang I just don't know.

So if I need to find another something else to call the debate-dodging, media-shunning, unsafe-for-children ecodunce Al Gore III, then what names would you suggest?

UPDATE 2: The insufferably patronising Gavin Schmidt at Real Climate has a go at Loehle's paper on behalf of Team Warmist. Lubos Motl gives Shmidt an 'F': "Unfortunately, his criticism is extremely vague and in the cases when it is not vague and where I could try to check his statements, they seem to be demonstrably wrong." Steve McIntyre suggests Schmidt can't even plagiarise accurately.